My Little Pony: Freedom is Magic
by Fabrosi
Summary: After the events of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Forever", Twilight and her friends are faced with challenges that Equestria has forgotten for centuries.
1. Chapter 1: Addiction

Author's Note: This story takes place after the events MLP: Friendship is Forever.

Chapter 1: Addiction

Misty's ears twitched and her eyes darted back and forth as she slunk through a dark, decrepit stone hallway. Ever since Twilight had become the new princess of Equestria, the Wonderbolt had felt a strange, inexplicable sense of restlessness set in, and whenever strong fits of it struck her, she would sneak through the unused underground pathways that crisscrossed deep into the cliffs of Canterlot. She feared that if anypony saw her agitation, they might view it as a sign of weakness, or worse, mental illness. Then again, who was she to assume it _wasn't_ mental illness?

So of course she gave a start when she saw a shadow appear from around the corner up ahead. She scrambled backwards, looking for the nearest hiding place, but it was no use. The other pony rounded the corner and stopped as she caught his eye.

"Misty?"

She shuffled her wings, avoiding his gaze. "Hey, Blizzard. What are you doing down here?"

"Me? What about _you?"_

She shrugged. "You first."

He looked around, in case somepony else from their team happened to be wandering through the tunnels. Then, he sighed. "Something's… wrong. I can't quite explain it, but I think it might have something to do with Princess Twilight removing our cutie marks."

Misty snorted. "Princess Twilight… what a joke."

"I don't see how," said Blizzard, though he wasn't reprimanding her. "Are you saying Celestia had more right to rule over us?"

She waved her hoof in the air, a sarcastically dreamy gesture. "What is 'right?'" she asked, a dry rhetorical. "Did those we killed have the right to live? Did _we_ have the right to kill them? Are the two rights mutually exclusive?"

"I don't see where you're going with this," said Blizzard, bemused.

"Then allow me to continue," said Misty with yet another sarcastic sweeping gesture. "What right has a wolf in the forest to kill and eat a rabbit? If he has no right, is it then his moral obligation to starve to death? Has a pony born with no legs been denied the right to walk? If so, who is responsible? Who is it that owes him a set of legs?"

"Just spit it out," sighed Blizzard. "I don't have time for your nonsense."

"What I'm saying," explained Misty, visibly disappointed by how dense her comrade was being, "is that there is _no such thing_ as right. We only live by the idea because it's a convenient way for us to keep things nice and orderly, with a minimum of conflict. I think it's ridiculous that we should have to call that upstart alicorn 'Princess Twilight' just as much as I think it's ridiculous that we had to bow before Celestia. The only reason we should listen to them is because they're stronger than we are."

Blizzard was quickly becoming depressed by what he was hearing. "But wait," he said. "Celestia forced us to kill for her in order to maintain her ideal of a perfect society. Twilight is willing to let us do whatever we want."

"She won't let us kill," retorted Misty. "That's one less thing we're allowed to do now that Twilight is in power."

"Are you saying you _liked_ killing?"

Misty opened her mouth to respond, then realized she was unsure what to say and closed it. She hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Well… now that you mention it, even though my cutie mark's gone, I can still kind of _feel_ it, only it's being held back or something. It's been driving me _crazy_. That's…that's kind of why I'm here. I was hoping to sort of walk it off, I guess."

"It's been the same way for me," said Blizzard. "I feel like there's something I _need_ to do…"

"…Like there's an itch you can't quite scratch…" continued Misty.

"Yeah, it's as though I've stopped doing something vital, like eating enough or sleeping enough, only it's something else…"

"Like you've lost a dear friend that you never knew you had," said Misty in a singsong voice, swooping by him and casually circling him through the air. "Like there's a hole where your heart used to be, only it's _not_ your heart, it's something else, and you can't even name it…"

-"I've been having uncontrollable thoughts about killing," stammered Blizzard, speaking quickly, as though he was keen on putting as much distance between himself and the words as possible. "They come on really strong, all of a sudden… just murdering random ponies, or pigs, or other living creatures—stamping them to death, or cutting them up, and I don't know _why,_ and it's terrifying…"

"What's so terrifying about it?" asked Misty unsympathetically. "We used to do that stuff all the time, remember? I should think you'd be used to it by now."

"But it was supposed to stop," insisted Blizzard. "Without those skull cutie marks, what reason do we have to be murderers?"

"That itch inside you," responded Misty, "that tells you that you _have _to kill. That feeling like you'll go crazy if you don't. What other reason do you need?"

Blizzard was dumbfounded. "But… it's _wrong!"_

Misty yawned. "I've just explained to you how the concept of 'right' is an illusion. Do I really need to spell 'wrong' out for you, too?"

"No, I just"—

-"Here, I'll spell it: W-R-O-N"—

-"Shut up."

Misty hovered directly in front of Blizzard, her face so close to his that she might have been about to kiss him. Instead, she whispered huskily: "Come on, Blizzard. Imagine going out into Ponyville, late at night, and picking a random house to break into. Imagine dragging somepony kicking and screaming into the trees, and just kicking him around, breaking all his legs, smashing his skull in, watching the glistening blood stream out…"

"You're sick."

"So are you. You just won't accept it."

He sighed. "Maybe if I tell Twilight about this, she can cure me. She can figure out what went wrong and fix it, and then I won't have these urges anymore."

"And what if she _can't_ cure you? What if she doesn't know what's wrong, so she just puts you on a short leash and doesn't leave you alone with anypony? You'll be a dangerous potential criminal to her, and what little freedom you have now will be gone…"

"Just stop it, alright?" He shoved Misty away, prompting a soft "hmph" from her. "If you want to go kill innocent ponies, go do it yourself. Why do you want _me_ to come along so badly?"

She shrugged. "I thought it'd be more fun with a friend."

"Gee, thanks. I feel so validated."

Misty laughed. "Well, after talking to you, I feel a lot better, so I guess there's that. Anyways, I think I'm gonna go get something to eat."

As she took off, heading for the surface, Blizzard tried not to dwell on thoughts of Misty's vile suggestion.

Meanwhile, Princess Luna and Twilight were flying through the skies above Canterlot, slipping through the clouds and savoring the sensation of cool mist rushing through their coats. It had been five months since the death of Princess Celestia, and Luna had forced herself to eschew a traditional alicorn mourning period in order to move on and help Twilight prepare Equestria for the wrath of nature that would come when Celestia's enchantments wore off.

"It's the diseases that worry me the most," explained Twilight. "Ponies everywhere have been building levees and redesigning buildings to prepare for natural disasters, and stocking up on food that doesn't spoil to prepare for crop failures, but I'm afraid training unicorn doctors to cure deadly viruses that don't even exist yet is a challenge that I've still no idea how to overcome."

"Well, Celestia's enchantments are doing a fine job of keeping ponies healthy, at least for now," observed Luna. "Perhaps I can look through her notes and find something that explains how she solved the problem."

"That sounds like a brilliant idea."

From their altitude, Canterlot looked tiny, like a toy city built into a large, hilly carpet. Twilight looked down upon it and thought absently of how much it was dwarfed by the rest of Equestria, and how Equestria in turn was dwarfed by the rest of the Earth.

"How much of the world do you think has never been explored by ponies?" Twilight asked Luna.

"The vast majority of it, I'd assume… but why do you ask?"

"It just seems strange that with our capacity for flying and using magic, we would stay confined to Equestria to the point where we only know of other creatures that cross or bounders, or live in neighboring regions. I know it was part of Celestia's way of maintaining secrecy, but after we deal with the problem of her enchantments, I feel like exploration should be one our next major goals."

"Why not send somepony to explore now?" asked Luna. "You _are_ the princess, after all."

"Yeah, I guess…" Twilight said, before quickly adding "but so are you."

Up to this point, they hadn't discussed how they would split the responsibility of ruling Equestria. Twilight secretly felt that Luna had more of the right to the throne than she did, since Luna had not only been Celestia's sister, but also had also demonstrated herself to be a much more responsible ruler than the older alicorn.

"It's funny," said Luna. "We always encouraged the myth that Celestia's main task was to raise the sun, and mine to raise the moon, but in reality both of those things happen on their own due to the motions of planets. Was there ever a moment when you realized that during your stargazing?

"Yes, back when I was a filly studying in Canterlot," replied Twilight, "but when I asked Celestia why she would lie about something like that, she told me that she used to really believe she had the power to raise the sun. The massive amounts of light she would generate during her 'raising' spell created the illusion that she was accelerating the sunrise, she said, and when she realized the truth, she just felt too embarrassed to tell everypony."

"I… _suppose_ that might be true," said Luna, though she sounded doubtful. They trailed behind a flock of birds until they dispersed after a few seconds. "Celestia did convince _me_ that I was raising the moon, and we alicorns never were a very scientific-minded race. I suppose that's one downside of being gifted with more than enough magic to meet all of our needs."

About half an hour later, Twilight headed to the Wonderbolts' wing of the castle, remembering Luna's suggestion that she send somepony to explore neighboring lands.

As the alicorn stepped out into the flying team's private courtyard, Rainbow Dash spotted her while in the middle of a sharp turn. "Twilight!" she shouted with joy before skidding ungracefully into the ground.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Rainbow!" cried Twilight as she ran over to her friend.

"It's cool," said Dash dismissively as she hopped to her hooves. "All part of the job description. So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Miss Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts," Twilight said airily, (though she was unable to keep a straight face) "I, Princess Twilight of Equestria, have a most important mission for you and your fellow royal fliers."

Rainbow Dash caught on immediately, and bowed so low that a blade of grass tickled her nose. "O, most noble Princess Twilight, what is your command?"

"Outside the borders of Equestria lie many lands yet unknown to ponykind. I hereby task you, Lady Dash, along with any Wonderbolts who may wish to accompany you, with the most honorable duty of exploring these lands and report what you discover to me, thereby expanding our knowledge of the world outside of our kingdom."

"Wait, like, actually?" asked Rainbow, breaking character.

"Yes, actually," giggled Twilight, doing the same. "My projections indicate that we have more than a sufficient workforce to prepare for the disasters that will arrive when the enchantments wear off, so that means we can turn our attention to other things."

Rainbow Dash considered Twilight's proposal. "If I go exploring," she asked, "can you and our other friends come?"

"I'm afraid I'm going to be quite busy," explained Twilight, "and besides, I suspect that anypony who wasn't a Wonderbolt would just slow the rest of you down.

Rainbow Dash looked somewhat dismayed by this, but said "Well, maybe… but it depends who _is _coming with me."

"Well, I'm all for the idea of an exploration mission, for what it's worth," said Spitfire. "It sounds like a lot of fun." By now, all six of the main Wonderbolts were gathered around Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

"It would be a nice change from having to stay in one place while we perform tricks," added Soarin'.

Blast and Tyco chimed in that they, too, would like to go on the mission, at which point Twilight and Rainbow turned their gazes to Misty.

"I think our fans would be a little disappointed if we just up and disappeared for a few months," she shrugged. "Seems like at least somepony needs to keep giving shows to tide them over 'till the rest of the team gets back."

"Good thinking," said Blizzard. "I think I'll stay, too." Misty raised an eyebrow at him, smirking almost imperceptibly.

"Well," said Rainbow Dash, looking back at Twilight, "that sounds good enough for me. I'm in."

"Excellent!" cried Twilight, clapping her hooves together. "Then we should start making preparations at once."

While everypony else was distracted, Misty and Blizzard slipped away, heading back to the Wonderbolts' lounge.

"Now do you see what I mean about her being a joke?" whispered Misty. "She and her little friend were acting like a couple of kids. Just think—_she's_ the one in charge of our country.

"It's not like we can do anything about it," Blizzard pointed out.

Misty gave him a sly grin. "We just did, didn't we? With the other Wonderbolts gone, there won't be anypony watching us, so long as Twilight's busy, we can get away with all kinds of fun. That's why you're not going with them, isn't it?"

"You're not still on about killing ponies?"

"I know you're still thinking about it. Don't lie."

"Alright, so I _am_ thinking about it. So what? Don't make this harder for me."

"It would be easier if you'd just go out and do it."

He could see nothing good would come from talking to her any longer, so he turned and left without a word, heading towards his room as he ignored her protestations. Once he was there, he gazed out his window, wondering how he could save himself from himself.


	2. Chapter 2: Mail Delivery Failure

Chapter 2: Mail Delivery Failure

Pinkie Pie bounced down the streets of Ponyville, gazing around at the vivid, sunshiny day the world had in store for her. She drank in the sights of the other ponies going about their day, the trees dotted throughout the town, the intimately familiar shops and houses, the blue alicorn in the sky…

-She skidded to a stop as Luna descended, landing in front her. "Hello, Pinkie Pie."

"Hey, Princess Luna! Whatcha' up to?"

"I was hoping to discuss something important with you and your friends."

"Well, if it's important, I'll go look for them right away!"

Luna followed Pinkie Pie as she rounded up Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. Once they were all in the meadow by Fluttershy's cottage, Luna spoke to them:

"Everypony, I should let you all know that Twilight has overseen nearly all of the necessary preparations for Equestria's impending disasters, and so she and I have decided to start turning our attention to other important matters. For the next few weeks or so, Twilight will be studying Celestia's enchantments to learn the secrets behind their disease-warding properties, while your friend Rainbow Dash will be exploring new lands with the Wonderbolts." They looked at one another, surprised—they hadn't heard about Rainbow's quest yet. "Meanwhile," continued Luna, "I plan to go back to Sustria and see what kind of damage control I can achieve regarding relations between Equestria and what remains of the Sustrian Empire."

"I have gathered you all here because you are the only ponies I know who have actually been through Sustria and seen the pigs without engaging in battle with them. I would like you all to tell me everything you remember about the pigs and their ways, so that I can take the most diplomatic actions possible when I go to Sustria."

They looked at each other. Their journey to Sustria had been quite brief, and once they'd succeeded in their mission of capturing a noblepig named Lord Reginald, they hadn't looked back. However, Applejack remembered something noteworthy:

"They had other critters as slaves, like goats n' sheep n' whatnot. The soldiers would treat 'em like dirt and kick 'em around, and none of the other pigs would do nothin'."

Luna looked thoughtful. "I remember, long ago, there were several different regions in the south, each ruled over by a different species… It's possible that the Sustrian Empire colonized neighboring areas and built a workforce out of their neighbors."

"Then we should put a stop to it, shouldn't we?" asked Rarity. "Nopony deserves to be treated like that, nor does any sheep, or any llama, or anyone else."

"Well, I'll see what I can do," Luna assured her, "but _someone _has to keep them organized, and I'll have to make sure I don't leave behind a worse form of government than whatever they have now."

"Maybe we can help," suggested Fluttershy. "After our last adventure, it seems like we can do anything if we work together." The others added their agreement.

"That's a nice thought," said Luna, "but I'm afraid the pigs will almost certainly be extremely hostile, and I'd rather only have to watch out for myself—no offense. If you'd like to help, I'd prefer that you just tell me anything else you might remember about the pigs so that I know how best to deal with them."

So they did their best to recollect how the buildings pigs' cities had been organized, how the noblepigs all dwelled in the great castle in Truffledorf, and how Lord Reginald had expressed a deep distrust for ponies and their ways, including weather control and magic. When they had finished, Luna thanked them for their time, and they wished her good luck before she teleported away.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and four of the other Wonderbolts finished packing their things and flew off towards Ponyville, where everypony would see them off.

"So, Rainbow," said Spitfire, flying up alongside her, "what do you think we'll find out there?"

"Well," she replied, "I've flown out in that direction once before and there's a village called Hoofshore pretty close to the far side of the Everfree Forest. I told them I'd pay them a visit sometime, so maybe we can go there first."

As they arrived in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash scanned the cheering crowd for some sign of her friends, and quickly spotted them.

"Hey, Dashie!" greeted Pinkie Pie. "Luna told us you were gonna go adventuring with the Wonderbolts."

"Yeah, we're gonna discover and claim new lands in the name of Equestria," explained Rainbow, holding her head and wings high with pride. "Twilight wanted just us Wonderbolts to go, so we'd cover ground faster, but I'll be sure to bring you girls souvenirs, okay?"

"Sure, I'd _love_ a souvenir!" squealed Pinkie Pie, and the others agreed. There was a sudden flash of light nearby, and Twilight appeared. Once again, Rainbow Dash bowed to her, and so did the others, until one by one, they all burst out laughing.

"You're sure you packed everything you need?" asked Twilight.

"Yes, _mom,_" gagged Dash, wiggling her back to indicate her saddlebags.

"I gotta say, I'm jealous," admitted Applejack. "It's not every pony what gets to go out 'n see the world."

"Please be careful," urged Fluttershy, realizing she probably wouldn't.

"Things should go pretty smoothly," explained Tyco. "I made some military maps of Sustria under Celestia, so I have some experience with cartography."

"Excellent. Well, then, good luck and happy trails!"

Everypony cheered and waved goodbye as the Wonderbolts soared off over the treetops the Everfree Forest, leaving behind them four thin storm cloud trails and a bright, glorious rainbow.

Since she knew the area best, Rainbow Dash led the others towards Maneheart. Every so often, Tyco would call for a stop, swoop down into the canopy, and make a few notes and marks on his map before putting it away and taking off again.

When they flew over Maneheart, Dash was surprised to see the ponies there looking alarmed by the Wonderbolts' presence. She realized that they must not have heard about the change in the team's allegiance, so she announced:

"Citizens of Maneheart! We have come here by royal order of Princess Twilight!" They breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Rainbow Dash," greeted the mayor, stepping forward. "It certainly has been awhile, hasn't it? What brings you and your new… friends back to our quaint little burg?"

"Princess Twilight wants us to map the area around Equestria," explained Soarin', "and we thought this would be a good place to start."

"_Princess_ Twilight? You mean"—

-"Yes," interrupted Spitfire. "The details are a bit complicated, but Celestia is dead and Twilight has succeeded her as the ruler of the land."

The ponies of Maneheart cheered, and Rainbow Dash realized that they were untroubled by Celestia's passing because they had never known her as a benevolent princess, but only a vague menace from a distant land.

"Yeah," added Rainbow, "it was pretty intense. Anyways, how have you guys been?"

The townsponies treated the Wonderbolts to their finest cuisine as they swapped stories from the past few months. Rainbow Dash was saddened to learn that Perseus, who had trained Twilight in the art of combat magic, had recently passed away after a long struggle with a serious illness. In the back of her mind, she realized that this would soon be the fate of many of the ponies in Equestria.

Tyco compared his maps with those drawn by the locals as Rainbow Dash described in detail her adventure through Canterlot's underbelly to a wide-eyed crowd.

"…and it looked like we were going to win, but then Blast and Tyco showed up. You guys dragged me off to the dungeon, remember?"

Blast smiled. "Yeah, and I also remember you giving Misty a run for her money. It took her wings _so _long to heal after that…"

The grin vanished from Dash's face. "Hey, can I tell you something? You have to promise not to tell Misty."

"Sure, okay."

Even though Misty was miles away, Rainbow Dash instinctively lowered her voice. "She kind of creeps me out. I don't think she wanted me to join you guys, because she would always glare at me when we were practicing, but she never said anything about it."

Spitfire waved dismissively. "I'm sure she was just miffed that she couldn't fly with the rest of us for all those months. Now that her wings are in working condition again, she's probably over it."

"I sure hope so…"

The mayor offered to let the Wonderbolts spend the night in the guest lodge, but as there was still enough daylight to reach Hoofshore, they declined. They said their goodbyes and took off, the thrill of adventure once again upon them.

At that moment, Twilight was returning to her room with a few of Celestia's journals in her saddlebag, intending to uncover the last of her disease-fighting secrets before the day was over. The moment she started poring over the first journal, however, she felt a pair of eyes upon her and looked up to see a certain baby dragon standing before her.

"What is it, Spike?" she asked.

"Well… um, is there anything I can help with right now?"

"Not at the moment. Thanks for offering, though."

She resumed reading, but he didn't move from his position. After a moment, he went on:

"It's just that everypony's so busy these days, and I feel like I should be helping out—helping _you_ especially, since I'm your number one assistant and all, and… yeah."

Twilight, realizing Spike's dilemma, set down the journal as she racked her brain trying to think of some way for her assistant to make himself useful.

"What about our friends in Ponyville? There's probably something or other that needs doing back there, and I know they'd love to see you again."

His expression brightened somewhat. "Well, sure… but I'll need a lift."

"No problem." She sidled up next to him, prompting him to hop on her back. In an instant, they were back in Ponyville, by Twilight's old place. As she looked wistfully at it, she said "Promise you'll say hi to Owloysius for me, will you?"

"Sure, if you'll promise me something."

"What's that?"

"If you need help with anything—anything at all—just give me a call, alright?"

She was about to reply in the affirmative when she realized she wasn't sure how she would go about doing that. She could teleport back to Ponyville easily enough, but she imagined it would be a hassle to have to track down Spike every time she needed his help. She had, however, the beginnings of an idea for a solution.

"I wonder…" She went inside her house, marveling at how untouched it seemed since she'd left it, and scavenged a few blank scrolls.

"I never did learn the mechanics of your scroll-sending magic," she said, more to herself than to Spike, "but I have a feeling we can get the system working again." She got out a quill and ink and wrote "test" on one of the scrolls, and then concentrated on sending it to Spike the way Celestia used to do.

To her delight, the scroll transformed into green smoke, which rapidly vanished before being coughed up by Spike. As the scroll rematerialized, Twilight unrolled it and saw that the word "test" had endured the process unblemished.

Twilight was eager to get back to her work, and though the thought made her somewhat guilty, she needed an excuse to leave.

"Alright," she said to Spike, "now we just need to make sure it works the other way. Your job is to find our friends, have them write me a letter, and then send it to me. Got it?" He saluted before dashing off, and, with a sigh of relief, Twilight teleported back to Canterlot.

It didn't take Spike long to round up Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy and explain to them the test he and Twilight were running.

"So one of us just needs to write her a letter?" asked Applejack. "'Bout anythin'?"

"That's right," affirmed Spike.

Pinkie commenced her characteristic bouncing. "Ooh, ooh! Pick me!"

Everypony gathered around as she meticulously drew a long, curved line, then another at a sharp angle to it, and then more lines still, slowly covering the scroll with ambiguous shapes.

"I'm afraid I don't get it," said Rarity. "Is that a Q?"

"It's a drawing," explained Pinkie Pie, without looking up.

"Oh, I get it!" said Applejack. "It's Little Strongheart, right?"

"Who?"

"You know, that buffalo that we met in Appleloosa?"

"Oh. Nope."

The other four watched, mystified, as Pinkie continued to draw, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"It's definitely a pony…." observed Fluttershy.

"Pinkie, it doesn't matter what you draw," explained Spike. "We just need to send something to Twilight so we know it works."

"I know," she replied, "but I still wanna finish."

As she added spiky hair to the mysterious pony, Rarity exclaimed "Oh! Is it Doseydotes?"

"Nope."

"I give up," said Applejack. "Just tell us, alright?"

"I'm almost done."

As she added the cutie mark, almost everypony exclaimed the answer in unison:

"Rainbow Dash!"

"That looks nothing like Rainbow Dash," sighed Spike, slapping his face with his palm.

Pinkie Pie looked affronted. "Hmph. We'll just see what Twilight thinks. I'm _sure_ she'll recognize her most colorful friend."

With that, she wrote a note on the back explaining precisely what the scroll was meant to test. Then, she rolled it up and handed it to Spike, who held it aloft and blew fire on it, sending it off towards Canterlot "I hope this works," he said as he watched the green smoke disappear from view.

Misty was once again lurking through Canterlot's underground, grateful for the impenetrable solitude it provided. _Blizzard will come around_, she thought to herself. _He'll kill sooner or later… and when he does, I'm going to rub it in _so _hard._

She yelped as a flash of green whisked by her. It was very faint in the darkness—she might not have seen it, had she not been looking over her shoulder out of instinctive paranoia. The faintest flicker of green lingered in the passageway in front of her, and, determined not to let the enigmatic specter get it away, she flew after it at top speed.

It wasn't easy, but she managed to follow the light by the lingering, sparkling trail it left behind. Soon, she found herself going down a long staircase, and stumbled somewhat, not wanting to scrape her back on the ceiling as she flew. At first, she worried that by slowing down, she would lose the trail of her quarry, but it turned out there was only one path to take.

She passed through a large, round room and ran down another, smaller set of stairs. An overpowering stench threatened to overpower her nostrils, but she pressed on. Then, before her, the light swirled through a room full of bone-white statues of unicorns before descending into—

She gasped. Before her was the partially decayed corpse of Princess Celestia, arranged to look as though it were sleeping. She panicked as the light vanished and she heard the echoing sound of something small and light hitting the ground and rolling a very short distance. Tentatively feeling for it with her hoof, she found that it was made of paper. Hoping that it was somehow related to the green light she had seen and that it might shed some light on the mystery, she felt her way back up towards the long staircase, hoping it wouldn't take her too long to get out.

That night, Blizzard soared across the plains neighboring Canterlot, guided by moonlight. He swerved ever so slowly to the side, making a great circle, before swooping down low towards the tall grass, causing it to part on either side of him before he swung back up again. In short, he tried everything he could think of to convince himself that his motion was aimless.

Unfortunately, he quickly failed at this as he drew nearer and nearer to Ponyville, and as soon as he fearfully realized that somepony might see him, he swooped down into the narrowest alley he could find.

Hating himself for what he was about to do, he snuck from the alley to a shrub, from one dark place to the next until he was outside somepony's window. Driven by urges that he could no longer master, he burst through the glass, startling an earth pony with a cream coat and burgundy eyes. He charged at her, knocking her to the floor as he covered her mouth with his hoof to prevent her from screaming.

Instinct took over as he wrapped his other foreleg around her neck, choking her. He felt his own lungs tighten and his heart pound furiously, drowning out his other senses for several minutes before he was certain she was dead. The feeling washed over him: a horrible, wonderful feeling at taking the life of another pony, a chill filling his very soul as he looked down at her broken, lifeless form, the eyes still open and rolled upwards…

He whipped around in stark terror as he heard a high-pitched laugh behind him. To his immense dread, there, in the doorway, stood Misty.

"Oops, I almost forgot" she simpered. "We don't want anyone seeing us, do we?" She winked at him before closing the door behind her and closed the nearby blinds before turning on the lights.

Blizzard glared at her furiously, which of course made the moment all the sweeter for her. "Sorry for interrupting your fun," she cooed as she strutted up to him, her eyes on the body of the helpless pony he had just murdered. Once she was uncomfortably close to him, she stared Blizzard straight in the face, a devilish fire in her eyes.

"It felt good, didn't it? _Amazing,_ even?"

He turned away. "It's none of your business," he snarled through clenched teeth.

She held her hoof before her open mouth in a mock gasp. "Blizzard, how could you say such a thing? Of _course_ it's my business!" To his chagrin, she sidled up next to him and wrapped a foreleg over his shoulder. "I'm going through the same symptoms, remember? We're like brother and sister, you and I. We're in the same boat. We're partners in crime…"

"I'm going to tell Twilight," he said firmly, half-hoping that by making the statement he could force himself to do the thing. "She'll cure me. She'll make this stop."

Misty cackled once again. "Really? You _really_ think she'll just go ahead and forgive you for committing murder, _on your own_, under no pressure from anypony?"

"It's my cutie mark… I couldn't help it."

"Oh, please. She'll toss you in a dungeon and throw away the key. I can't believe you're even considering taking your chances with her."

He shot her a look of pure loathing. "You just don't want me to drag you down, too."

She grinned. "You're assuming I've been killing ponies, just like you."

"It's pretty obvious from the way you talk about it."

She shrugged as she helped herself to a snack from the recently dead pony's pantry. "I was waiting for you to break the ice. Believe it or not, I've managed to hold myself over by stomping on little woodland creatures up until now. They were in the forest, though, so what's anypony going to do?"

Blizzard felt nauseous. Not only had he taken an innocent life, but the very last pony he would've wanted to know about it was now rubbing it in his face, mere moments after he had completed the deed.

"Aww, cheer uph!" she managed through a mouthful of carrot. Noticing she was spitting on him, she swallowed. "Sorry. As I was saying, I've made a little discovery that I think will improve our situation tremendously. Do you want to know what it is?"

Blizzard wanted nothing more than to put as much distance between himself and Misty as possible, but he knew in his heart that he wasn't about to confess what he'd done, so he consigned himself to listen to whatever psychopathic adventure she had in store for the two of them. "Alright, tell me."

"I'll do better than that—I'll _show_ you." She withdrew from under her wings a single scroll, which she unrolled and presented to him.

"That's a horrible drawing."

"It's not mine," she said quickly, and turned it over.

He read the note that had been hastily scrawled on the scroll's backside, but said nothing.

"You realize what this means, don't you?" Misty asked.

"I have an idea," Blizzard replied slowly, "but how about you just tell me?"

"You obviously have no idea at all," she retorted, turning her nose up at him. "I'll make it simple for you: all we need to do is find a way to dip our hooves into the communication lines between Twilight and her friends, and then you and I may, among certain circles in Ponyville, assume the role of Princess Twilight Sparkle, ruler of all Equestria.


	3. Chapter 3: Herp Derp

Chapter 3: Herp Derp

The next morning, a crowd of nervous ponies gathered around Rose's house, wondering at the worrisome spectacle of her broken window. Her friends had gone looking for her to no avail, and everypony was beginning to fear that she must have been kidnapped.

"I thought Ponyville was _safer_ than this," sighed Rarity.

"I know," said Applejack. "I can't help imaginin' what it would be like if it was Applebloom."

"I wouldn't let 'em take me," insisted Applebloom. "I'd use my kung-fu to fight 'em off." Applejack, frowned, now even more worried.

"I can't think of anypony who would do a thing like this," said Fluttershy.

"Maybe it wasn't a pony at all," suggested Pinkie.

They lingered for a while longer, but, realizing they couldn't help Rose by doing so, gradually started to disperse, going about their day and trying to ignore the troubling thoughts nagging at them.

Rarity was sewing a copy of a dress she'd last made years ago when she heard something slam against her door. She apprehensively ran downstairs, immediately thinking somepony must have been trying to break in. As she opened the door, prepared to deliver a fierce kick if necessary, she froze at the familiar sight of a certain blonde, grey-coated pegasus.

"Sorry about knocking so hard," she said, looking simultaneously at Rarity and at a flower patch about fifteen feet to her right. "I guess I botched the landing a bit…"

"It's quite alright, Ditzy Doo," Rarity assured her, thoroughly relieved that she wasn't being attacked. "Please, come inside."

As she did so, Ditzy explained: "I'm here because I heard that you and Princess Twilight's other friends were having some mail-related trouble."

"How did you?"—

Ditzy pulled out a scroll from her mailbag and handed it to Rarity, who cringed as she unrolled it and was greeted by a familiar, misshapen drawing of Rainbow Dash.

"Oh… I see."

There was an awkward silence as Rarity glanced from the scroll to Ditzy Doo, and then back at the scroll.

"I didn't draw that, you know," she said hastily.

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

"Oh, okay. Anyways, I was wondering if…" She hesitated, suddenly becoming nervous."…if I could help resolve the issue by delivering letters to the Princess myself."

Rarity carefully sized up Ditzy Doo: her strong, sturdy wings; her confident, eager smile; her derped eyes.

"I… suppose I don't see the harm."

Ditzy tried to clap her hooves together with joy, but unfortunately each hoof missed the other and she fell over. Jumping back up, she cried, "Oh, thank you, thank you, _thank you!_ I promise I won't fail you or the princess!"

Rarity couldn't understand what she was so excited about—but then again, she thought of Twilight as her friend, not a princess to be admired and treated with awe and deep respect. "Just a moment," she said, going back inside. "I'll write a letter notifying her that you are now in charge of royal mail delivery."

By the time Rarity had returned, Ditzy had lost sight of her doorway, but quickly found it again thanks to the sound of the unicorn's approaching hoofsteps.

As the mail-pony flapped away with the letter in her bag, she barely remembered an important stop she was supposed to make on her way to the Princess. When she was near Canterlot, she swooped down to a large door at the end of a high-up walkway, carefully looked around to make sure nopony was watching, and then went inside.

"Ditzy Doo!" greeted Misty warmly. "So glad you made it all right!"

"Of course I did! It was only a trip to Ponyville and back, after all…"

She gave Misty the scroll and, as the Wonderbolt was taking it upstairs, she asked: "Why do we have to keep this a secret, anyway?"

"Because," explained Misty in a sweet and patient tone, "if Princess Twilight—or anypony, for that matter—was to find out we were checking the royal mail for dangerous contents, like curses or poisons or explosives, then it would only remind them that there was a threat of somepony sending them those contents in the first place, which would only serve to worry everypony unnecessarily. This way, we can keep the process out of sight and out of mind."

This seemed like a fair enough explanation for Ditzy, so she waited downstairs while Misty took the letter to her room to inspect it. Ditzy wondered why it was necessary to check a letter from Rarity, one of Twilight's friends, but Misty seemed to understand this "safety check" business better than she did, so she let the Wonderbolt carry out her work.

Meanwhile, Twilight was in her room, organizing her notes on Celestia's incredibly complex enchantments after an all-night session of studying and experimenting. She felt guilty for not going back to Ponyville to let her friends know their letter hadn't arrived, but she also felt extremely tired. Just as she was filing the last piece of paper away, hoping to take a nap, a knock came at her door.

"Ugh…" she trudged over and opened the door to see a grey pegasus, escorted by two royal guards.

"Ditzy Doo?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"

She bowed. "Your highness, your friend Rarity told me that if it was alright with you, I could deliver your friends' letters to you!" she explained, gleefully giving Twilight a scroll.

"Well, that sounds like it'd be helpful…" she said as she unrolled it. "What do I owe you for this?"

"No charge! Helping the princess of Equestria is its own reward."

"I feel like I should at least give you something…" said Twilight, though she was distracted from this thought by the letter she was reading:

_Dear Twilight,_

_I have instructed Ditzy Doo to bring you this letter so I may inform you that she now has my permission to serve as an official courier between you and me, along with our other friends. I believe she will do a fine job and, pending your approval, she seems willing to perform this job for some time to come, regardless of pay. I know we'd all really like to stay in touch with you while you're busy in Canterlot, so please write back soon to let us know how things are going! Your friend,_

_ -Rarity_

Something seemed unusual about the way she had formed her sentences, but then again, Twilight couldn't remember ever seeing Rarity's writing before. As she looked up from the letter, she noticed that Ditzy was on her way out.

"Wait! I still need to pay you"—

But it was no use; she had already flown away.

"I guess I can give her something later," Twilight yawned, before trudging up to her bedroom and subsequently collapsing.

Meanwhile, the five adventuring Wonderbolts departed Hoofshore, seen off by nearly all of the villagers. During one of their feasts, the ponies of Hoofshore had told their guests of a cave some distance to the west, filled with strange and mysterious paintings that had been there longer than anypony could remember.

"Do you think the villagers themselves put those paintings there?" asked Blast. "This might just be their way of showing off."

"I doubt it," said Rainbow Dash. "I don't think they would lie like that. Besides, they made it sound like there was something really weird about them."

They scoured the hills they'd been directed to for some sign of the cave, and soon spotted a telltale rocky area which gave away a small opening.

"How are we going to see anything in there?" asked Soarin', but Spitfire noticed a torch on the wall, along with some flint and still, and set about acquiring a light source. Once she had the lit torch in her mouth, she led them inside.

They noticed the cave paintings immediately, as they had been made in a roughly circular path on nearly the entire wall of the cave. Rainbow Dash tried to make sense of them, but they were extremely crude, and there was something exceedingly alien about the scenes they depicted…

"I'm not impressed," said Tyco. "These don't seem like very good drawings at all."

Soarin' walked up to one particularly busy section of the wall in order to inspect it more closely. "I don't think that's the point," he said. "Look at these stick figures…"

As Rainbow Dash followed his example, she was chilled to see what he was talking about: the stick figures stood on their hind legs, using their forelegs to hold weapons, such as spears and bows. Most disturbing of all, their heads were represented by circles; Dash could only imagine what their faces might look like.

"What are those things?"

"Some kind of weird monsters, I guess?" offered Spitfire. "I don't know."

Rainbow Dash quickly realized that the pictures were arranged in chronological order from left to right, like panels in a comic book. The first painting, just to the left of the entrance, showed the stick-creatures wielding spears and chasing what looked like boars. The second showed them gathered around a fire, lifting their spears in triumph. As the paintings continued, they seemed to show the growth of a civilization: the beings made increasingly large and impressive cities, and the spears were replaced by other, less recognizable weapons. It was a bizarre yet captivating story, interrupted by one particularly confusing depiction:

"What are those mushroom things supposed to be?" asked Rainbow.

Spitfire squinted at them. "They're on roughly the same scale as the buildings from the drawing right before, so I think it's saying they turned all their buildings into giant mushrooms."

"But look at the part right after," said Blast. "The mushrooms aren't there anymore and the creatures go back to carrying sticks."

They examined the mushroom painting awhile longer, but it was a deeply vexing mystery, and no explanation was forthcoming. Rainbow Dash turned her attention to the final two paintings, and gasped.

"What is it?" asked Soarin'.

"Look… unicorns!"

The second-to-last painting showed a group of unicorns chasing the stick-things, and the last showed them directing what appeared to be magic at their two-legged victims, who were unmistakably writhing in pain as they were immolated by blue flames.

The five Wonderbolts lingered in the cave for some time, hardly daring to breathe as they reflected on the images they'd just seen. They realized however, that they could have spent a year looking at the paintings without understanding them any better, so one by one, they made their way back out into the sunlight, where Tyco carefully marked the cave's location on his map before they all took off, each taking at least one backwards glance towards the inscrutable mystery that lay behind them.


	4. Chapter 4: Diplomacy

Chapter 4: Diplomacy

As Luna soared towards the pig capital of Truffledorf, she expected to be attacked by archers at any moment, but she managed to land in front of the city's gates unmolested.

"Pigs of Sustria!" she called out, using magic to amplify her voice. "I, Princess Luna of Equestria, have come here in the hopes of making amends with your kind to the best extent possible!"

No answer came, and she knew, just as she had suspected all along, that she would have to fly over their walls to get inside, so she did just that.

As she descended, a flurry of motion exploded around her as hundreds of pig soldiers rushed towards her. They must have run out of arrows, because all of their weapons were spears, axes, or scimitars.

"Please, everypony—er, everypig!" she cried. "I don't want to fight you!"

It was no use; they continued to charge, so just as their front lines were about to reach her, she conjured a spherical shield around herself, which they bounced harmlessly off of. Thinking to take advantage of their lack of ranged weapons, she once again took to the air, and as she circled over them, she repeated:

"I don't want to fight! Lower your weapons; I come offering peace!"

"There can be no peace between pigs and ponies!" shouted one of the pigs' officers, and the others roared their agreement. "Your kind has slaughtered more of our kin than we can count, much less provide proper burials!"

"I can never justify such atrocities," replied Luna, "but only tell you that I was not complicit in them. My sister, Princess Celestia, ordered a secret war against your race in order to make the border between our two nations impassable. Now that she has passed on, her apprentice has taken her place, and she and I both wish for an end to the conflict!"

The pigs would not be placated easily—they continued to wave their weapons impotently at her, and a few even tried throwing spears at her, falling short by a good fifty feet and nearly striking their comrades. However, as Luna's words sunk in, many of the pigs began to falter in their intense thirst for revenge, and the leading general shouted:

"Pony, your dead sister left behind much to answer for, and the scars she left upon our homeland will not heal quickly. However, in consideration of Equestria's sudden change of leadership, we will permit you to speak with one of the emperor's representatives."

After she cautiously descended, she was led inside the central castle by several guards. Inside, she stood before a pig wearing an expensive-looking suit and tie, along with a gold wristwatch.

"Why have you brought this pony to me?" he called out.

"She is Princess Luna, sister to Celestia," explained the general. "She wishes to negotiate a peace between Equestria and Sustria."

The emperor's representative snorted. "A 'peace?' Perhaps she means to say that we should all be her subjects, toiling under the ponies as though we were sheep."

"I should wish for no such thing," said Luna. "In fact, the current administration of Equestria is willing to return all of the land that our nation took from Sustria during the war."

As she was speaking, a great boar descended appeared from the door opposite her, his hair grey and grizzled, his tusks gleaming and wicked-looking. He wore a deep purple cape inlaid with gold patterns, along with boots of iron that clanked as he walked. Every pig in the room bowed to him as he passed, so Luna followed suit. As the boar came to a stop before Luna, his representative stepped aside.

"I am Emperor Irontusk," he said to her in a deep, gravelly voice. "What is this I hear of you offering us back our lands? What would you ponies expect from us in return?"

"Nothing," she replied, "other than a lasting peace between us. The atrocities that my kind committed against yours can never be undone, but I believe that over the next several decades, the wounds of the past may be allowed to heal to the point where the old hatreds between our races are all but forgotten."

"You underestimate our memories, pony," grunted the emperor. "Shall we really pretend that after a tremendously one-sided war, you would offer us anything to which you ascribe any value? Shall we disregard your war magic, your brutal pegasus armies, your Wonderbolts?"

"The armies are disbanded," explained Luna, "and the Wonderbolts are away, exploring new lands. We ponies have laid down our weapons, and ask only that you do the same."

An excited murmur broke out amongst the pigs. If the Wonderbolts, who had tormented them for so long and struck fear into their hearts, were not available to fight, then perhaps they had some viable options. After, all, here before them was the princess of Equestria, unescorted and unarmed.

A greedy grin began to spread across Emperor Irontusk's face. "We will accept your kindness, if we can have one more asset from your people."

Luna's face brightened. "And what might that be?"

"You."

Understanding the emperor's meaning, several soldiers charged at Luna, knocking her to the ground before she could conjure a shield. Instead, she telekinetically flung them away from her in all directions.

"Pin her down!" roared the emperor. "Break her horn, break her wings!"

They made several more attempts to charge her, but she sent them flying back each time.

Disgusted, she turned to the emperor and said: "I had hoped that if I offered you peace, we might someday come to see pigs as our friends. Now, I see that you are a ruler without a sense of honor, humility, or even good judgment. When I was told that you'd taken other creatures, like pigs and goats, as slaves, I thought it must be an exaggeration—now, however, I suspect that you are fully capable of such an atrocity."

"Bah!" spat Irontusk. "Do you know what those animals were doing before we conquered them? Farming! They were all farmers—filthy, illiterate and ignorant, without the slightest hint of aspirations towards higher thought. By letting them farm for us, we have saved them from such uselessness. Given enough years, they might even learn to civilize themselves. They should _thank _us!"

Up until now, Luna had been afraid of showing the pigs too much aggression, for fear of accidentally committing more needless killings. As she'd just seen, however, it was quite easy to defeat them in battle without seriously hurting them, so she began steadily approaching the emperor, saying:

"Irontusk, it is my belief that you are unfit to rule these lands. I hereby relieve you of your position as emperor and appoint myself temporary ruler of Sustria, so that I might maintain order until a suitable replacement is found."

The pig's eyes widened as she came closer, until, squealing with terror, he leapt from his throne and made a mad dash for the door. Some of the guards took a few halfhearted steps towards Luna, but stopped, relieved, when they saw that she wasn't going to give Irontusk chase.

Nearly every pig in the room flinched as she looked around at them all with contempt. "Does anypig among you contest my rule?" she bellowed. None responded.

"Good." As she thought carefully, trying to decide her next move, she distractedly mused upon how simple it had been to depose the emperor. In her centuries by Celestia's side, she'd forgotten how much more powerful she was than other creatures, and how quickly and easily she might accomplish things by force. She inwardly resolved that before she relinquished her newfound seat of power, there would be justice in Sustria.


	5. Chapter 5: Imponyation or something

Chapter 5: Im-pony-ation (or something like that)

_Everypony,_

_Sorry I took so long to get back to you—it turns out being princess is a pretty busy job. Anyway, if Rarity hasn't told you yet, we've decided to let Ditzy Doo deliver any messages you want to send me until I get around to figuring out how to fix Spike's magic fire. She seems pretty enthusiastic, so you don't hesitate to give her plenty of letters to deliver—after all, I'd love to hear from you all anyway, so if you keep her busy, everypony wins. Also, I forgot to pay her the last time she was at the castle, so let's make sure we work that out as soon as possible, alright?_

_ -Twilight_

Rarity had read the letter immediately after Spike had coughed it up and handed it to her. "Thank you, Spike," she said. "It seems our communication problem is now completely solved."

"Don't thank me," he said. "It's not exactly voluntary…"

Rarity left to show her friends the letter. As Spike started to follow her, however, he heard a soft tapping from the back window.

"Hey, I know you," he said to the pegasus hovering outside. "You're one of the Wonderbolts that stayed behind… uh…"

"Misty," she said helpfully. "Princess Twilight wants to see you right away, and she sent me to take you to the castle."

"Really?" he asked hopefully. "But… wait, why do I need to go through the window?"

"To save time!" she urged. "Now, hop on!" As she landed just inside the window, he followed her instruction. Then, she took off.

Blizzard felt somewhat anxious as he paced around the Wonderbolt wing. He and Misty were scheduled to perform in Cloudsdale in two days, and he was worried that the stress he'd been under of late would affect his flying.

He sighed as he heard the front door open.

"Blizzard!" called Misty, sounding worryingly cheerful. "We have a guest!"

Blizzard's heart sunk to the floor as he saw a puzzled-looking Spike.

"Misty, that's the princess's dragon. You realize that, right?"

She laughed. "Of course I do?"

"Hey, um," began Spike as she led him up the stairs, "I thought we were going to see Twilight?"

"Oh, we are," replied Misty, giving the slightest hint of a smirk, "but first I need to get something. You'll help me carry it downstairs, won't you?"

Blizzard followed the two of them up the stairs and into a storage room. "Misty," he said, "_please _tell me you're not about to do what I think you are."

"And what might that be?"

Spike was growing fearful now. "Okay, seriously… what's going on here?"

Blizzard stepped between Spike and Misty. "I'm not going to let you kill him," he said firmly.

"_Kill_ me? What"—

-"Relax," interrupted Misty, laughing. "I'm not going to kill him. We might need him as a bargaining chip later on. Besides, I already had a couple of birds this morning."

Spike started to make a run for it, but she grabbed him with her hooves. "Help me," she grunted, "unless you want him to escape and get us both in trouble."

He complied, and though Spike struggled hard, scratching and biting at them both, they managed to wrangle him into a small iron cage.

"You won't get away with this!" he shouted. "As soon as Twilight realizes I'm missing, she'll come looking for me, and you'll both be in _huge_ trouble!"

"That," cooed Misty, "is where you're wrong. It just so happens that I planned for that eventuality, and"—a knock came at the door, prompting Misty to produce a wide grin. "There it is, coming together."

As she went downstairs, Spike started calling for help, but the door must have blocked the sound quite effectively, because after a minute or so the Wonderbolt returned, carrying a scroll and still wearing a smug expression of victory.

"Let's see here," she said as she unrolled it. "'Dear Twilight: We tried to pay Ditzy Doo like you asked, but she refused to accept any amount of money. We can't imagine why. Pinkie Pie wants to know if you like the drawing she made of you (it's on the other side), and all of us want to know how your work on the enchantments is going, and how soon you might be done. It's a lot more boring around here without you or Rainbow Dash, and unfortunately there's nothing exciting to report right now. Also, don't worry too much, but Spike'—that's you!—'seems to have disappeared somewhere. Rarity last saw him at Carousel Boutique, but he isn't there, and we're still looking for him. He'll probably turn up at the library, or something. Anyways, we all hope to hear from you soon! Your friends, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy.'"

Spike listened with a growing sense of despair. "How inconsiderate of them," simpered Misty, "making their poor friend worry when she's already _so_ busy. Blizzard, take a note." She directed him to a quill, a bottle of ink, and some parchment she'd left lying on a crate nearby. "Dear Twilight: Ditzy Doo insists on delivering letters to you for free, probably because she feels that the honor of delivering royal mail is payment enough for her services. If you don't mind telling us, what exactly does your work on the enchantments involve? We know you've mentioned some of the details before, but is it related to how you became an alicorn? Anyway, we all really appreciate what you're doing for us and for all of Equestria, so keep up the good work!"

As Misty waited for Blizzard to catch up, she turned her gaze to Spike. "By the way," she continued after a few seconds, "Spike seemed a bit lonely without you at first, but after spending some time hanging out with us, he cheered up pretty quickly. We think the time away from you might help him grow more independent, so don't feel like there's any hurry to get back. Your friends, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie."

By now, Spike sat slumped on the bottom of his cage, looking absolutely hopeless. Naturally, this only encouraged Misty. "You see?" she said to him in a sarcastically sweet voice. "You're doing just fine back in Ponyville, so there's no need for Twilight to come looking for you."

"There's one problem with your plan," said Blizzard flatly.

"Oh? And what might that be?"

"If Twilight thinks Spike is in Ponyville, and her friends think he's with Twilight, then how can we use Ditzy Doo to deliver letters both to _and_ from the castle when the princess is sending her letters to Spike with magic?"

"You seem to be forgetting the extent of my ingenuity," she said airily. "We simply let Twilight think Spike is in Ponyville and that Ditzy Doo is only delivering letters _to_ her, while her friends all think Ditzy is handling deliveries both ways. Meanwhile, we tell Ditzy herself that the princess is magically sending her letters to Spike—which is true. It's perfect."

With that, she went downstairs again, the freshly written letter in tow. Ditzy was waiting patiently just outside the door, staring absently into two far-off places—Misty couldn't imagine where.

"Oh, Ditzy Doo," she said as she approached the blonde pegasus, "Here's the letter you need to deliver to the princess."

Ditzy saluted as she put the letter in her bag. As she cheerfully flew off, Misty began planning out the fake letter she would write to Twilight's friends, along with what she might do after that, and so on. This handy little mail system she'd set up might have massive potential, if only she could play her cards right.

Twilight was interrupted from her work by an odd knock-like thumping on the door—but then again, any visit she got was an interruption from her work these days. Once again, it was Ditzy Doo with a letter for her, which she opened with magic and read as she returned to her study.

Deciding to respond immediately, she got out quill, ink and parchment, and wrote:

_Everypony,_

_I'm glad to hear Spike is doing okay. Honestly, I felt kind of bad leaving him in Ponyville at first, but I think he'll be better off if he can keep himself busy. I guess we may as well just give up on trying to pay Ditzy Doo, since she's so stubborn about it… we should at least be careful not to overwork her, though._

_My work on the enchantments is mostly just boring technical stuff involving complex magic—no sparks or flashes or bangs, just runes, runes, and more runes. And you're correct about the connection to my becoming an alicorn: Princess Celestia set up the focal point for all of Equestria's enchantments in that awful room under Canterlot with the big circle of runes. Basically, she pinned me to this magnetic plate with her magic, which stopped _me _from using magic, and—_

She stopped writing momentarily as she felt a sudden twinge somewhere in her chest. After several seconds, she continued:

_-and you know the rest. Honestly, it's a memory I'd rather not talk about… if you really want to know the details, you can probably ask Rainbow Dash when she gets back. I still find it difficult to think that Celestia really made the best decision for Equestria that day, but I suppose what's done is done, and there's no changing it now._

_Enough about that, though—I have some very important news about the enchantments. You see, I've mainly been focused on finding a way to deal with the deadly diseases that will show up once they're gone, and I believe I have a few viable options:_

_One: I can set up a number of "safe zones" which will be able to heal sick ponies, while also keeping them from developing any seriously illnesses. The biggest risk is that some ponies may contract fast-acting diseases which will kill them before they reach these zones. Also, they'll be fairly small, and there's a good chance we'll run out of room._

_Two: When Luna comes back, she and I can treat ponies on a case-by-case basis, tending to the most serious cases first. As we train more unicorns, it will get easier to treat seriously ill ponies in time, but since there will only be two of us at first, this is probably even riskier than the first option._

_Three: I can drain power from the enchantments responsible for controlling weather, cutie marks, and carnivores, causing them to run out more quickly, while also using my own power to maintain the only disease-fighting enchantments over all of Equestria. I should have enough magical energy to extend the lifespan of these enchantments by a few years at least, leaving Luna ample time to train a sufficient number of unicorn doctors. The downside is that I would have to give the task my absolute concentration around the clock; without using sacrifices like Celestia did, I won't be able to leave the enchantments for more than a couple hours at a time, which I would have to use for basic things like eating and sleeping. If I did this, I might not be able to write to you all for a very long time, but it would definitely be the safest option._

_I still haven't made up my mind, but among the many things our last adventure taught me was to never doubt the helpfulness of my friends' advice, so if any of you think one of these options sounds better than the others, definitely let me know. Hopefully awaiting your reply,_

_-Twilight_

Once she had reread the letter, she carefully rolled it up and magicked it away. She thought to herself that she wouldn't make the same mistake as last time: she would seriously consider her friends' ideas, for she had faith that in a serious situation like this one, any one of them might have something valuable to say.

Spike was startled by the familiar warm feeling welling up in his throat, and soon the scroll had escaped his mouth by its own volition. It shot through the bars of his cage, landing near the corner of the room. He briefly considered trying to burn it before Blizzard or Misty came, but the room was full of wooden objects, and he was sure that if he started a fire, the intense heat and smoke inhalation would do him in.

So instead, he waited glumly until Misty arrived to check on him, carrying in her mouth something that it took him a moment to recognize as a hunk of cooked meat.

"Lunchtime!" she said cheerily after dropping it into his cage.

He eyed it with extreme suspicion. "Where did you get this?"

"Forest," she shrugged as she gazed around the room. "Oh, look at that!" She walked over the scroll. "Spike, is this for _me?_ How sweet of you!"

"Seriously, this isn't, y'know… _pony_ meat, right?"

"Of course not!" she laughed. "If I were going to kill a pony every time you needed to eat, I'd draw a terrible amount of attention to myself, now, wouldn't I? No, this was just your everyday woodland creature. It wasn't even cute, in case you're worried about that, so chow down."

As she whisked away the scroll to show it to Blizzard, Spike moved as far away as he could from the glistening piece of meat, up against the bars of his cage. He realized, though, that he could either eat it or starve, so, wincing, he took a bite. Finding the taste to his liking, he ate the rest somewhat less hesitantly, though still ill at ease in his mind.

Downstairs, Misty finished reading the letter aloud to her companion, a satisfied expression on her face.

"I don't get it," he said. "I mean, I get that we want Twilight out of the way, but what can we actually _do?"_

"You only get half of it," she sighed. "Honestly, Blizzard, if it weren't for me, I hate to think what might happen to you." He decided not to respond.

"The point," she continued, "is that we are on the verge of something _big_. I'm still gathering information and putting the pieces together, but if all goes well, we'll be running this place before long."

'This place' as in Canterlot or 'this place' as in Equestria?"

"Do I really need to explain to you why that question is completely idiotic?"

"Why don't you just tell me what this master plan of yours is?"

She explained her plan to him in detail, and by the time she was finished, he was more terrified of her than ever.


	6. Chapter 6: Discovery

Chapter 6: Discovery

The Wonderbolts all felt soreness creeping into their wings (and, to a lesser degree, the rest of their bodies) after flying for so long. Each of them secretly wondered if he or she was the only one having this problem until Blast hesitantly proposed that they take a break, much to everypony's relief.

"I feel like we shouldn't be having this problem," said Spitfire. "We _are_ athletes, after all."

"Yeah, but we usually only fly for about an hour or two at most," Soarin' pointed out. "Our bodies aren't used to this kind of constant strain."

Rainbow Dash rolled over on her back, enjoying the sensation of the dewy grass while she could. "Tyco!" she called. "What's our status so far?"

He got out his map. "I've marked a decent portion of the border of the Everfree Forest, and the gradual decrease in elevation makes me think we're nearing an ocean."

"Cool." As Rainbow thought back, she realized she had never seen the ocean before—there had been a body of what might have been saltwater back when Blizzard had chased her across the wilderness, but she had quickly reached the other side. She'd only heard secondhand accounts of Equestria's eastern ocean, and how it appeared by all accounts to go on forever…

"Do you think we'll ever reach the edge of the world?" asked Blast.

"Nah," said Dash, and they all looked at her, prompting an explanation: "Twilight once told me the world is round, so if you go far enough, you end up going all the way back where you started. She showed me some star maps and equations and stuff explaining how it all works, but it was boring so I stopped listening at that point."

"That's odd," said Soarin'. "Celestia always told us not to fly too far from Equestria, so we wouldn't get sucked off the edge. I wonder why she would"— He stopped as comprehension dawned upon him.

After eating some grass, they flew off again, intending to find out whether or not there was really an ocean on the other side of the continent.

Back in Ponyville, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had gathered near Fluttershy's cottage to prepare for an expedition of their own. They knew danger would await them in the Everfree Forest, so they made sure they were fully prepared.

"Let's see," muttered Applebloom, looking through their supplies. "We've got blindfolds in case there's a cockatrice, camouflage to hide us from most o' them big critters, a first-aid kit, water…"

"Let's _go _already!" urged Scootaloo, so they did.

They entered the forest at the point where they'd noticed a few faded hoofprints in the mud—a sign of some criminal activity, no doubt. Their plan was simple: follow the prints and search for clues, return and tell the older ponies their findings.

"I bet we'll find some clues about whoever kidnapped Rose," said Sweetie Belle excitedly.

At one point, they nearly lost the trail, but eventually they found a single, barely visible print on the other side of some thick brush. From there, they found their way not by prints, but by a sparse trail that somepony had left by trampling the dense vegetation. For some reason, an awful smell filled the air, so they quickened their pace in the hopes of passing it.

As they were trotting through a clearing, Applebloom tripped over something, covering herself in the wet dead leaves that littered the ground. As she rolled over, trying to stand up, she noticed an odd, bright burgundy strand of some soft material poking up from the ground. "I think I found something!" she cried.

As they dug through the dead leaves and the soil, they realized with dawning horror where the smell was coming from. In the same second, all three fillies leapt backwards, letting out shrill screams.

"That's Rose, isn't it?" asked Scootaloo in a quavering voice. "I don't know what she looks like, so"—

-"Yeah, that's her," replied Applebloom. "C'mon, let's get outta' here."

They ran as quickly as they could back out of the forest without a backward glance.

Rarity was helping Fluttershy pull weeds from her garden when they heard the panicked Crusaders' shouts as they charged out into the meadow, nearly tumbling out of the forest.

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity cried with alarm. "Applebloom, Scootaloo… what were you all doing in the forest?"

"I know we weren't supposed to go in there," explained Sweetie Belle, speaking very quickly, "since it's dangerous and all, but there were _hoofprints_ leading in there, and we thought it was best if we just followed them real quick and told everypony if we found anything, but what we found was…"

"It was way worse than anythin' we coulda' imagined!" finished Applebloom.

"What?" said Rarity, glancing at the spot where the fillies had emerged from the woods. "What was it?"

"It was…" Scootaloo took a deep breath, then, speaking more softly, said: "It was Rose. She's… she's dead."

A few minutes later, several ponies were crowded around Rose's body. Daisy and Lily, who had known her the best, stood stock-still, with tears silently streaming down their faces.

"There's bruise marks on her neck," observed Applejack, "but the skin ain't broken. It's like she was strangled or somethin'."

"It's so horrible," squeaked Fluttershy. "The same pony that broke into her house must have dragged her out here, and… and…"

"Do we know it was a pony?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"We do," replied Rarity gravely. "Before everypony trampled them, there was a trail of hoofprints leading to the body."

It occurred to them that these might serve as useful evidence, so they backtracked, with Rarity and Fluttershy studying the ground closely for any sign of the older prints. Finally, they found the print at the entrance to the forest which had originally led the Crusaders to their grim discovery.

Slowly, as everypony watched, Rarity lowered her own hoof into the print, just barely touching the mud so as not to alter the original shape. Whoever had left it had bigger hooves than she did, and was most likely a stallion.

Big Macintosh stepped forward, following Rarity's example while she stepped back. To nopony's surprise, his hoof was substantially larger than the print. As he stepped backwards, the sound of arrhythmic wingbeats approached them.

As Ditzy Doo landed near the assembled ponies, she seemed confused by their grim demeanor—but then again, she was usually confused.

"I… I have a letter for Twilight's friends," she said tentatively.

_ Dear friends, _

_There is no need for any of you to worry about Spike—I felt as though I was neglecting him by leaving him for so long, so I decided to pick him up and bring him back to Canterlot with me. I would have told you all, but I was in a hurry to get back to work. I'm sure Ditzy Doo will be perfectly happy to deliver letters both to and from the castle—I mean, as long as she's so eager to do us such nice favors, I say we should let her._

_As for the enchantments, it's hard to say how much more there is to do. I'll be sure to give you an estimate once I've made a bit more progress. Hope you're all having fun!_

_-Your friend, Twilight_

As they finished reading the letter, Twilight's friends became uneasy. "Guess now we gotta break the bad news to her," sighed Applejack.

"Hopefully, she'll be able to help us sort this business out," said Rarity. "I mean, she is—Pinkie, what's the matter?"

Pinkie Pie was still studying the letter closely, squinting at the words. "I don't think Twilight wrote this letter," she said slowly. "It doesn't quite look like her writing… it's close, but not quite the same."

"Come now," said Rarity. "You're just being paranoid. What happened to Rose is affecting all of us, I think, but we need to remain focused."

Pinkie seemed to relax. "Yeah, I guess it was just my imagination. Come to think of it, this is the first of her writing I've seen since she became an alicorn, so it makes sense that it'd be different."

Rarity wrote and sent a letter informing Twilight of Rose's murder. For the rest of the day, nearly everypony in town tried to piece together what might have happened and who might be responsible by talking in hushed tones amongst themselves; giving and confirming alibis; and trying their hardest to remember if anypony had seen anypony else acting suspicious that night. A sense of distrust and paranoia gradually crept into their interactions. It was quite an unfamiliar feeling for most of them, but it seemed they would have to get used to it.

As Ditzy gave Misty the letter, she also gave the Wonderbolt a pleading, urgent look.

"Is something wrong?" Misty asked.

"Somepony named Rose was murdered in Ponyville," Ditzy blurted out. "I found out just now when I went to give them the letter from Princess Twilight."

Misty looked shocked. "Blizzard!" she called upstairs. "Did you hear that? There was a _murder_ in Ponyville!"

When no response came, she muttered "I guess he must be taking a nap." As she absently unrolled the scroll, she said to Ditzy, "Oh, yes, it says right here in the letter what happened… tragic, really. If I were you, I wouldn't mention it to her when you see her—you know what they say, bearer of bad news and all that."

A minute later, as Misty 'revised' Rarity's letter, a wicked smile crossed her face.

_Dear Twilight,_

_All of those options but the third one sound extremely dangerous. We like being able to stay in touch with you, but it really isn't worth the lives of hundreds of innocent ponies, is it? We've all agreed that we're willing to wait patiently for Princess Luna's return. After that, it'll be smooth sailing, right? And the Wonderbolts should be perfectly capable of keeping the peace until then, so there's no need to worry about that._

_We suggest that you go ahead and start powering those enchantments as soon as possible—after all, it'd be awful if ponies started dying of illness because you delayed too long, right? Anyways, when all this gets sorted out, you can bet we'll all be _dying _to see you again!_

_-Your friends_


	7. Chapter 7: Opportunity

Chapter 7: Opportunity

The next day in Cloudsdale, Misty and Blizzard flew out into the cloud-filled stadium, met immediately by the sound of over a thousand cheering ponies. They wove the storm-cloud trails behind them into complex, interlocking shapes which accentuated how near one another they could fly without touching and how tight their turns were. They went on to create sparkling patterns of mist and snowflakes, which created stunning visual effects when struck by the sunlight. All of their movements had a grand, sweeping quality that belied the impeccable symmetry and technical perfection that went into every tiny rebalancing, every minute re-angling of each wing. There was even more pressure on them than usual, since they were missing five ponies who might have otherwise been able to distract the audience from any minor mistakes they made. Then again, they were good enough fliers by far to keep the crowd cheering at a deafening roar for the entire performance.

"I'm glad that's done," Misty confessed to Blizzard once the show was over and they were on their way home. "Tonight is the night I had planned for that special something I told you about."

"Do you really think it'll work?"

"Only one way to find out."

Blizzard felt a sudden sense of urgency as Misty broke away from him, on her way to carry out her dark designs. He knew he couldn't let her get away with what she was doing. He knew the right thing to do was to try and stop her, to tell Twilight, to tell _anypony._ He knew that basic morality dictated he do everything in his power to prevent what had been set in motion.

Instead, he did nothing. The guilty lump somewhere in his throat, the fear that his own act of murder would be thrust into the light paralyzed him completely, so he simply went home, ate alone in his room, and awaited whatever would come to pass.

That night, the other five Wonderbolts lay beneath the stars. They had discovered the western ocean early in the afternoon: a sprawling expanse of water even greater than Rainbow Dash had imagined, reaching out so far in all directions that it seemed to simply disappear at a distance. They had marveled at the waves crashing against the jagged rocks below them for some time before moving on, Tyco mapping the coastline as accurately as possible.

Now, however, their attention was directed skyward, towards that clear expanse filled with a complex array of twinkling stars. Rainbow Dash thought about her friends back home, and remembered with a start that she still hadn't gotten them any souvenirs. _I'll get around to it,_ she thought as she yawned deeply.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, she noticed a strange greenish light flitting past her peripheral vision. Jolted to alertness, she spun her head around to look at it, and saw that it was darting around from one spot to another some three hundred yards away.

"Look!" she whispered sharply to the other Wonderbolts. "Over there!"

Spitfire squinted in the direction she'd pointed. "I don't see anything over the"—Then, she saw it.

"Holy hay!" interjected Soarin'. "What _is _that?"

The strangest thing about the light was that it appeared to be moving with a sort of intelligence: it would speed up and slow down in a delicate rhythm as it flitted from one spot to another, seemingly examining something on the ground, or some quality of the ground.

"_Hey!"_ called Rainbow Dash. _"Is somepony over there?"_

Whatever the source of the light was, it must not have heard her, because it showed no response. After several minutes, it broke its pattern of flying from one spot to another near the ground and began to ascend. Once it was a few hundred feet in the air, some quality of the light changed—not the color or the brightness, but something _else._ It was as though it was spinning, only there was no way they could have known it was spinning, because it gave off the same intensity of light in all directions. Then, in an instant, it vanished, leaving pure darkness behind it.

"What do you think that was?" asked Blast.

"No idea," said Soarin'. "I've never seen anything like it."

The Wonderbolts stared silently at the spot where it had been, but they knew it would be futile to try and find the thing, so they gradually settled into an uneasy sleep, filled with dreams of multicolored lights that danced under the stars.

The next morning, Blizzard was eating breakfast in the dining room of the Wonderbolt wing when he heard the front door open. A sense of dread filled him and he nearly choked on his food as Misty walked into the room, confirming his very worst suspicions.

She was wearing a hat.

"Morning, Blizzard." It was an oddly shaped, roughly conical green hat, with a yellow feather attached. He stared at her, hardly blinking as she got out some carrots and oats.

"Sweet Celestia," he swore under his breath. "You actually did it. You actually went through with it, and it _worked._"

"You'd better believe it. As long as we make sure nopony finds out what's going on, I should be able to secure the position of power I need to start taking over."

"That hat looks ridiculous. Do you really think no one's going to be suspicious of it?"

She finished her mouthful before answering: "I don't intend to be outside much until Twilight's out of the picture. That's why I stocked up on food."

Blizzard watched her as she resumed eating, amazed and horrified by what she had done. Remembering that he was supposed to feed Spike, he withdrew a piece of meat from an icebox hidden in a cupboard and lugged it upstairs, wondering just how badly this would all end.

Back in Ponyville, nopony was any closer to finding out who had killed Rose. Gradually, hesitantly, they tried to resume their everyday lives—after all, Princess Twilight would surely dispatch the royal guard in no time, and the killer would be caught and his motives thrust into the light.

This hope was what held Pinkie's hair up as she took pastry orders from customers at Sugarcube Corner. When her shift was over, she sought out Fluttershy, eager to discuss their situation.

"I've been thinking and thinking," she said to the pegasus as they walked along the edge of the forest, "and I just don't know _any_pony who would do a thing like that!"

"And you know _every_pony in Ponyville," Fluttershy pointed out.

"I know! So that means that either I misjudged someone or it wasn't a pony from Ponyville at all."

Fluttershy thought of Canterlot, of the royal court and the nefarious role it had played in maintaining the peace before Twilight had taken power, of conspiracies…

"Who's the only pony we know that's tried to have somepony killed?" asked Fluttershy.

"Cheerilee," replied Pinkie, "but I already thought of that, and with Princess Celestia she at least had a motive. This was just… senseless."

Fluttershy was sure she'd been onto something, though, so she kept her train of thought on track. "Maybe Rose knew too much about something, like Fluttershy, and somepony in the royal court killed her to keep her from speaking out."

"Hey, maybe! There _could_ be ponies still loyal to Princess Celestia, or something… what do you think they might be up to?"

Fluttershy shrugged. They were silent as they walked across a bridge over a brook, down a winding cobblestone path back towards Ponyville proper.

"Has your Pinkie sense been telling you anything lately?"

"Not much, except that somepony's suddenly going to start using a lot of magic… we already know about Twilight and the enchantments, though."

It wasn't much of a lead the two of them had, but they nevertheless shared it with Rarity and Applejack once the four of them were congregated in Twilight's library.

"Our letter should have reached Twilight by now," Rarity pointed out. "I wonder why she hasn't responded yet."

"She must be real busy up in Canterlot," said Applejack. "Otherwise, she'd probably teleport right over to help us out."

"Well, why don't we just go over there and try to find somepony else who can help?" asked Pinkie Pie. "I mean, it's not _just_ Twilight who handles the royal guard, right?"

None of them knew, so they decided to go find out. Partway up the road to Canterlot, however, Fluttershy realized something:

"We don't… really _know_ anyone in Canterlot, do we?"

Applejack thought back. "Rainbow Dash is a Wonderbolt and we know _her_, so maybe we should be askin' the Wonderbolts for help."

"But what can _they_ do?" asked Rarity. "They're not responsible for law enforcement."

"Maybe not," said Applejack, "but I figure we need to talk to somepony with connections in the government, and they seem like as good an option as any."

After asking for directions, made their way to the Wonderbolts' wing of the castle. Misty answered the door looking strangely started. "May I help you?" she asked.

"Well…" began Rarity, but she hesitated, distracted by Misty's hat, so Applejack continued:

"There's been a murder in Ponyville—somepony named Rose."

"Oh, yes," Misty sighed heavily. "I heard about that. Such a terrible thing to do, and I can't imagine _who_ would want to…"

"…Yeah, that's kinda what we wanted to talk to you about," said Applejack.

"Me?" asked Misty, cocking her head to the side. "Why ever would you want to talk to _me?"_

"We already told Twilight," explained Pinkie, "but she hasn't written us back yet, so we figured she must be really busy, and we were thinking _you_ might know somepony in the royal guard who could help us investigate the murder."

Misty tapped her chin in thought. "Honestly, I'm not sure what the protocol for something like this would be, now that Twilight's in charge. Most of the so-called 'guards' that served under Celestia were actually part of various special operations units, like us, the Wonderbolts. I suppose _we _could help you, though, since we don't have another show for quite some time."

"Oh, thank you!" exclaimed Rarity, relieved. "I mean, I hope it's no trouble"—

-"Not at all. Just let me fetch Blizzard, all right?"

She found him in the storage closet, feeding Spike a piece of meat. "Spike," she said, "you'll be glad to know that your friends from Ponyville are downstairs. It's _almost _like you're getting a visit from them, isn't it?"

Spike immediately began hollering for help, but of course they couldn't hear them. Misty laughed so hard as to drown out Spike's calls, and then turned to Blizzard.

"You and I are going to investigate the mysterious matter of a certain mare's murder."

"What? But why"—

-"Because if we show that we're eager to help with the investigation," explained Misty, "then there will be much less suspicion on us. On top of that, if we're lucky, we might be able to pin the blame on somepony else."

Spike watched hopelessly as the two of them left the room, Misty turning to wink at him over her shoulder before she went downstairs.

Meanwhile, Twilight was in her room, where she had just about finished preparations for her long seclusion. Not wanting to spend what might be several months in a cave mere yards from Princess Celestia's final resting place, she had diverted the ley-lines to a different room, which she herself had carved out deep underground.

She took a deep breath as she sent one last letter to her friends, before teleporting herself and a massive number of food crates to the cave where she would do her work. In the center of the floor sat the most comfortable chair she had been able to find. There she lay down as she closed her eyes and began to concentrate on what would soon become the longest spell she had ever cast.


	8. Chapter 8: Gathering the Magic

Chapter 8: Gathering the Magic

"By the way," said Misty with an air of urgency as she accompanied Twilight's friends back to Ponyville, "Princess Twilight wanted me to tell you all that she was too busy even to sit down and write a letter—it was something about having to hold up the enchantments all by herself, I believe."

"Oh no," said Pinkie Pie. "I hope she doesn't overwork herself."

"She said she has it under control," Misty assured her, "but she _did_ want help with something minor. She ordered me to bring her the most powerful unicorn in Ponyville, but I'm afraid I don't know who that would be."

The other ponies all looked at each other expectantly; they didn't know, either.

"I s'pose we can have a contest of sorts when we get back," said Applejack. "I'm guessin' this is urgent?"

"Yes," Misty replied, "she said she wanted it done as soon as possible."

After they arrived in Ponyville, they began asking around after unicorns with strong magic, and ended up rounding up about half of the unicorns in town.

"What is this for, exactly?" asked one of them once they had gathered in the middle of the town square.

"Princess Twilight wants the strongest unicorn in Ponyville to come help her with something," explained Rarity. "Since we've no idea who that is, I suppose we'll simply have to hold a contest of sorts."

For the sake of time, they decided to use only a simple test: two unicorns would make a large rock hover in midair, and each would try to push it towards the other. When it was Rarity's turn, she glanced hesitantly at the brown-maned unicorn she had been paired with, wondering which of them ought to levitate the stone. After a moment's awkwardness, she did so, and immediately felt a strong telekinetic force pressing the stone back.

She realized that there was no way she could win against somepony with such strong magic, but just as she was about to announce her surrender, the stone stopped moving in midair. She gave a questioning glance to the other unicorn, who looked just as confused as she was. She looked around, wondering if somepony was interfering, but she spotted no glowing horns amongst the spectators. Suddenly, the rock shot towards her, and she narrowly avoided it by ducking as her opponent apologized profusely. She gazed around the crowd, looking for some explanation, but none was forthcoming, so she stepped aside.

As she watched the brunette unicorn face her next competitor, Rarity squinted closely, looking for strange disturbances in the stone's movement. When she didn't spot any, she relaxed somewhat, deciding that what she'd experienced must have just been the result of her imagination.

After several more minutes, one pony was clearly triumphant over the rest: Sparkler, a pink unicorn with a striped purple mane. Misty thanked everypony for their time, congratulated Sparkler, and led her away, down the road towards Canterlot.

Meanwhile, Ditzy was finishing a day's work when her thoughts wandered to Blizzard and Misty. She'd forgotten about it before, but she realized again how strange it was that they would continually check letters between Twilight and her friends for dangerous contents when there was no reason for either party to send the other anything like that. She decided she had to ask them for an explanation, so she set off for the Wonderbolt wing.

When she knocked, no one answered, but she was impatient for answers so she let herself in. As she walked through the hallway on the second floor, she heard a faint voice on the other side of a door. Putting her ear to it, she was barely able to make out the sound of a small, childlike voice:

"…I don't see why you hang around with her, anyway. I mean, she just seems… well, evil, but you're not so bad."

Ditzy was surprised to hear Blizzard's voice respond: "It used to be I had to work with her because she was a Wonderbolt, but I always knew there was something off about her. Now, as she puts it, she and I are partners in crime… I have to do as she says, or she'll tell Princess Twilight about… something I did."

What Ditzy heard was surprising, to say the least: in what way was Misty evil? What was going on here that she didn't know about?

"So, wait… what exactly is Misty up to, anyway?"

Blizzard took a deep breath. "I think… she wants to usurp Princess Twilight."

"What? How?"

"There's some kind of magic circle deep under Canterlot—maybe you know about it. Misty plans to use it to sacrifice unicorns to herself until she becomes as strong as Twilight. Hay, she's already an alicorn. Did you see that hat she wears?"

There was a long pause. It occurred to Ditzy that Blizzard might be on his way out the door, so she hurried back downstairs as quietly as she could and flew off towards Twilight's wing of the castle.

"I need to speak the princess right away!" she frantically told one of the guards standing in front of her door.

"Sorry, miss, but the princess is in another part of the castle. She didn't want to be disturbed under any circumstances, so no one knows exactly where she is— and it's someplace well-hidden, apparently."

Ditzy groaned, went back outside and took to the air once more.

"I don't get it," stated Applejack. "Why would Twilight tell Misty and not us?"

"She didn't have time to write, remember?" suggested Pinkie Pie as they strolled down the road. "Say, weren't we supposed to be doing something?"

"The investigation!" cried Rarity. "Misty was going to help us, and… oh, I suppose she must have forgotten."

"That," said Fluttershy, "or she's planning to come back when she's done taking Sparkler to the castle."

Just then, Ditzy Doo landed nearby, stumbling and panting. When she'd caught her breath, she said: "Please, you all need to come with me! Something terrible is going on!"

As they were on their way to Canterlot at a full gallop, Applejack asked, "Wait, so… what is it we're lookin' for exactly?"

"Misty's up to no good in some secret room under the castle, where sacrifices take place. I was hoping one of you would know about it."

"I think Rainbow Dash told us about it," said Fluttershy. "We have to find a long staircase…"

"What was that about Misty?" asked Applejack.

"I don't know the whole story," said Derpy as they arrived at the castle, "but hopefully we can find out."

After they had made their way through upper Canterlot, past several confused nobleponies, they entered the dark underground tunnels, and Rarity lit her horn to help ensure they didn't get lost.

"Shh!" hissed Pinkie. "I think I hear something up ahead!"

Somewhere in a nearby hallway, hoofsteps echoed off the walls, gradually becoming quieter. Everypony slowed down, hoping whoever was up ahead wouldn't hear them. Unfortunately, this made it harder to keep up, and their quarry got farther and farther away; twice, they lost the hoofsteps entirely and ended up having to split up, find them again, and regroup.

Eventually, they came to the long staircase Fluttershy had mentioned. As they looked down it, they caught a glimpse of two faraway ponies, one of whom had a lantern. Rarity dimmed her horn and they made their way down the stairs more quietly than ever, hoping Misty (if it _was_ Misty—it was hard to tell from this distance) wouldn't turn around and spot them.

After what felt like ages, they reached the room at the bottom, and hid on either side of the open doorway, just barely managing to squeeze themselves against the walls.

"Here we are," announced Misty after setting down the lantern. "This is where you'll be doing your very important work."

"What is my work, exactly?" asked Sparkler. "I wasn't really clear…"

"Don't worry; you don't have to do much. Just stand in the center of this circle, if you will…"

Realizing what was about to happen, Applejack jumped out, prompting the rest to follow. Misty glared at them with a look of pure hatred, and then, before anypony could do anything, she turned her head towards Sparkler and a bright red light appeared, tearing through her hat…

…and through Sparkler's chest. There was a sudden flash of light while Misty shook the burning hat off and stamped out the flames. Everypony stared in shock at Sparkler's limp form and the smoking hole in her chest."

"Surprise," smirked Misty. "That's right, I'm an alicorn now. What are you going to do about it?"

Applejack started to overcome the initial shock, replacing it with outrage. "What else are we _s'posed_ to do about it? You _killed_ her!"

"Yeah, and you probably killed poor Rose, too!" shouted a straight-haired Pinkie.

"I can't believe I trusted you," spat Ditzy.

Misty laughed. "Well, trust me you did, and I now I owe my success entirely to your stupidity. You know those letters you were delivering between Princess Twilight and her friends? Those were _my_ letters, and thanks to _your_ help, the rest of you told me everything I needed to know."

"That's it!" stamped Applejack. _"Charge!"_

As they dashed towards Misty, however, she simply flung up a force-field which bounced them back. "Oh, that's right!" she said, putting a hoof to her chin with an expression of mock surprise. "I just absorbed the magic of the strongest unicorn in Ponyville! I _guess_ that means none of you can touch me!"

"As much as I hate to admit it," Rarity said to the others, "I think she's right. We should run."

So they did, up the stairs and through the hallways. Thanks to her athletic prowess, Misty gained on them rapidly, so Rarity turned around and blinded her with a bright beam of light. Much to their relief, they managed to lose the Wonderbolt at an intersection, and after several tense minutes, they slowed their pace and then finished making their way to the surface.

Meanwhile, three fillies were slumped in various spots around Applejack's barn, failing to enjoy their playtime together.

"I can't stop thinking about that dead body we saw," admitted Applebloom.

"Yeah," said Scootaloo. "It was like… she wasn't a pony anymore, like being dead made her into a thing."

"Is that what happens when we die?" asked Sweetie Belle. "We just turn into things that don't do anything or think, like tree stumps or rocks?"

Neither of her friends answered her. The thought was terrifying.

Their silence was broken when Applejack burst into the barn, glancing nervously behind her before closing the door.

"What is it?" asked Applebloom. "What's wrong?"

"It's… well, it's complicated."

Applebloom stamped her hoof. "You _always_ say that! Whenever somethin' is goin' on that you don't think I can handle, you say 'it's complicated' or 'it's a long story' or 'you'll find out when yer older'. Well, whether or not I'm old enough, I've seen a _dead body!_ So don't go 'n tell me that whatever's happenin' is too 'complicated' fer me!"

Applejack's jaw had dropped at her sister's gall. "Alright," she said, considering Applebloom seriously for the first time. "The pony responsible for Rose's death was Misty, the Wonderbolt—and she's still out there, on the loose."

The Crusaders gasped. "That's not all," said Applejack. "Somehow, she's gone 'n turned herself into an alicorn. Nopony can stop her when she's got magic like that."

"What about Twilight?" asked Applebloom. "I thought she had stronger magic than _any_pony!"

"Exactly," said Applejack, "which is why our best hope is to find her, only it turns out Misty was interceptin' the letters we sent her, and Ditzy Doo says she's hidden away somewhere."

"Why would Twilight do that?"

"I don't know," sighed Applejack. "Anyways, as long as Misty's on the loose, we can't be too careful. That's why we're goin' round and tellin' everypony in town to keep a close lookout for her, so's we can escape in time if she comes after us."

Without warning, she gave her protesting sister a hug, then said "All of you, stay hidden in this barn while I go help search for Twilight. Do _not_ leave under any circumstances. Do you understand?" They all nodded, and then Applejack was off.

She met with Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Ditzy Doo on the road to Canterlot.

"To be honest," said Rarity, "I don't even know where we should start looking."

"One of the guards told me she's hiding underground somewhere," explained Ditzy.

They all groaned and made for the nearest entrance to Canterlot underground that they knew of, every one of them on edge.

At the same time, a group of royal councilors was deliberating the allocation of royal funds.

"I really think," said a pure white unicorn with glasses at the head of the table, "that it would be irresponsible to neglect agricultural subsidies. The princess told us that they've stockpiled a sufficient amount of food, but without a solid labor force, the farms are still going to perform inefficiently when the time comes to distribute _en masse._"

"And _I _think," declared a larger, grey unicorn, "that Equestria's farms have historically proven themselves capable of both producing and distributing efficiently during times of hardship. Any additional funds we give them will go to waste. We'll see greater returns if we invest in foreign trade—a practice with a great deal of potential that was, unfortunately, severely limited under Celestia."

"Trade with _whom?" _asked the bespectacled unicorn. "The zebras? The _pigs?_ Beg pardon, but where exactly are we supposed to find a friendly nation, within a reasonable distance, to establish a trade route _with?"_

"Well, obviously I was thinking we should wait until the Wonderbolt expedition returns, and then see what our options are. The"—

-Just then, the door burst open. The councilors' irritation quickly turned to confusion, and then to fear as an alicorn with an aqua mane and a cream coat marched into their midst.

"So sorry to interrupt," she said as she stepped onto the table and began walking across their notes and documents, "but I just thought I'd stop by and make an important announcement: in Princess Twilight's absence, I shall rule as Equestria's new princess. If anypony has any objections, then _please,_ feel free to voice them."

One of them did. "What is the meaning of this? You haven't any right to the throne!"

As he was magically lifted into the air, she replied "How's _this_ for right?" and slammed him against the wall, knocking him unconscious. Every unicorn in the room sprang to action, shooting bolts of fire and lightning at her, but she easily deflected their attacks, leapt to the air. and flew around the room, battering them with both magic and her hooves.

"I'd like you call to come with me," she told them as she landed. They ran for the door, but she sealed it shut.

"What do you want from us?" growled the large grey unicorn.

"We're going on a little trip, deep under Canterlot," she explained. "I require… assistance that only unicorns can provide. I expect you all to follow me, and if any one of you calls for help or tries to slip away, I'll kill you all."

They regarded her with fear and anger, but after seeing her power, they knew that resisting her wasn't an option. Silently, hopelessly, they fell in line behind her as she led them away towards their doom.


	9. Chapter 9: No Right

Chapter 9: No Right

After hours of uneventful flying along the coastline, Rainbow Dash was elated to see tall, glistening white buildings overlooking an oceanside cliff.

"Who do you think lives there?" asked Spitfire as they gradually approached the city. "Ponies, or pigs, or what?"

"Only one way to find out," said Rainbow Dash, speeding up. She found herself wondering, first and foremost, what the city's inhabitants could offer in the way of food—she was tired of eating nothing but grass for days.

She observed that the city's roads seemed to be filled with large, slow-moving, grey vehicles, which looked like tiny dots. She wondered why she couldn't see anyone pulling these carriages until she was close enough to realize with a start that the grey things _were_ the city's residents.

"They're _huge!_" observed Tyco with awe. "I've never seen anything like them!"

"I don't think any of us have," said Soarin'. "We'd better stick to the air until we know whether or not they're friendly."

It wasn't long before some of the creatures were staring at the Wonderbolts, too. Up close, they seemed even bigger and stranger: they appeared to stand over ten feet tall, and had large, bizarrely long noses, along with white tusks and large, floppy ears.

_"We come in peace!" _shouted Blast to the growing crowd of beings that were staring at them. After a long, tense silence, one shouted, _"Well, come lower so we don't have to yell!"_ His voice was quite deep, but not nearly as un-pony-like as the Wonderbolts had imagined, which put them somewhat at ease. As they descended, the crowd moved closer, beginning to surround them and tower over them. The pegasi tense themselves, prepared to fly away at the first sign of danger.

"What… exactly _are_ you?" asked one of them slowly. Rainbow Dash was relieved, as she'd wanted to ask them the same question but had feared it might offend them.

"We're ponies," she explained, holding her head high and doing her best to hide her fear. "Pegasus ponies, to be specific. What are you."

"Elephants," replied the same elephant. Then, more to himself than anyone, he said: "You can fly like birds, and yet you are also sentient and speak like us… how very strange."

"We're explorers from a nation far to the south, called Equestria," said Spitfire. "For over a thousand years, our princess forbade any kind of extensive travel, but now that she has passed on, we're trying to learn as much as we can about the world and the species who live in it."

The elephant's nose began to move, and he used it to scratch his chin thoughtfully. "You say your princess died after a thousand years. Surely you mean her royal _line_ died out?"

Spitfire shook her head. "She was what we call an alicorn, which means she possessed both wings and a horn. Alicorns live for many, many centuries, and much of her rule involved keeping all of her subjects ignorant of many of the workings of nature."

"Yeah," added Rainbow Dash. "While she was princess, pegasi like us had to manage the weather, and all ponies would change the seasons—either through magic or hard work."

A murmur grew amongst the elephants at the strangeness of these newcomers' tales. "Well," said an unusually wrinkled-looking elephant, stepping forward, "we welcome you to the city of Trumpeton, part of our land of Proboscitaeria. If you'll come with me, I'd like to introduce you to our Elder. I believe he will be most interested to hear of you and your people."

The assembled crowd cleared a path as he led the Wonderbolts up the road towards the city's highest building, a great tower built from the same pure white marble as the rest of the structures. Predictably enough, it seemed as though everything had been built on a large scale to accommodate the elephants: the doors, the steps, (which they had to climb, not walk up, and eventually just flew over) the windows, the tables—even decorations seemed to be placed high up, where they would be well within the elephants' line of sight.

An intense floral scent filled the ponies' nostrils as they stepped into the Elder's tower. The building's inside contained more plants than its outside: a large, circular garden in a raised area filled with soil around the room's circumference, dotted with flowers of all colors, shapes and sizes but filled predominantly with vines that reached mischievously over the edge of the garden, as if playfully threatening to take root in the marble.

"We declared the Elder as the leader of our people several decades ago," explained their guide, as they crossed the room and began ascending the stairs, "when he shared his immense wisdom with us. It was at the top of this tower that he would meditate until the secrets of the universe made themselves known to him."

"What secrets were those?"

"He can tell you when we see him."

As they made their way up the tower, the ponies were struck by the sheer quantity and variety of plant life growing on every floor, along with the impossibly intricate patterns on the floors and wall-mounted, decorative devices like Newton's cradles (and others more complex and baffling). This might well be a culture, they realized, that was far more sophisticated than their own.

On the top floor, there was a long carpet leading to an ancient, wizened elephant at the back of the room. Something in the design of the windows allowed light to filter into the room in such a way that everything appeared brighter than if they'd been outdoors.

"Elder Torric"—greeted their guide, bowing, and they did the same—"We have guests: newcomers from a distant land to the south, known as Equestria. They say they are called 'ponies'."

"Come closer," croaked Elder Torric in an impossibly deep, rumbling voice with a soft quality that betrayed something of the extent of his age, in a way that his appearance did not. "My eyesight is not so good." As Rainbow Dash neared him, he reached out and felt the side of her face with his nose, making her somewhat uncomfortable.

"Sir? Elder?" she said. "Your, um, nose…"

"Trunk?" corrected the guide. "We call them trunks… and Elder, I don't think she wants you doing that."

"My apologizes," he said, stopping. "My people greet by touching trunks, you see. You said you come from the south?"

"Yes, Mr. Elder."

"You may call me Torric, young one. Have you considered, Dorren," and here he turned to look at the guide, "that these ponies may well hail from the forbidden land?"

"I had considered it, but I can't imagine how they might survive there."

"What's the forbidden land?" asked Soarin'.

"Far to the south," explained the elder, "there is a place where we dare not go, for many elephants have tried to venture into that region, yet none have returned."

Rainbow Dash thought of Celestia and her policy of killing pigs who crossed the Equestrian-Sustrian border. She shuffled uncomfortably.

"There are a lot of treacherous mountains between here and Equestria," said Tyco. "They may have been too dangerous to cross without wings." Elder Torric nodded slowly, piercing Tyco with his stare.

"Dorren told us you know some of the secrets of the universe," prompted Blast, hoping to change the subject.

"Ah, yes," breathed Torric, "the great truths. Back then, when I was much younger, the idea of meditation didn't really exist. An elephant slept, or worked, or thought, or played, or some other of a myriad of things, but the act of meditation would have just seemed like another form of idleness. Quite by accident, however, I discovered its usefulness in this very place, where I would sit and savor the immense height, the closeness to the sky."

A soft, haunting whistling noise slithered through the room. The ponies were unsure if someone had caused it to set the mood, or if it had interrupted his story purely by accident. Either way, he continued: "The universe spoke to me then, in my deep state of relaxation. It said, 'Torric, you feel the need to be near the sky because you want to be a part of something besides yourself, because you feel that you are isolated from others around you, as all living things are."

"How is it that the universe spoke to you?" asked Rainbow Dash. "What did it sound like?"

"It was something I heard in my mind, like my own thoughts yet immensely alien in nature. I felt the currents of time and reality rippling through me in their subtle fashion, and I realized that the self is both a prison and an illusion, for the process of our thoughts changes who we are slowly, almost imperceptibly, giving us an identity with its boundaries clearly defined by our bodies and thoughts, an identity that is destroyed the instant we think or do anything at all, to be replaced by an identity that is almost the same, but not exactly."

The whistling noise escalated in pitch and volume, and Torric did the same with his voice. "The universe flows within us and without us, I realized, for seemingly insignificant processes like sweating and eating gradually change the makeup of the very matter that allows us to exist in the first place. Our minds must change, too—for how else would we change our minds? We are all part of the same totality, connected in ways we do not understand and may never truly grasp."

He directed their attention to a large window. "The universe told me also of its birth. Just as the self is an illusion, so, too, is time as we recognize it. To say that it is a certain year, or that a certain amount of time has passed since a certain event, requires an observer, a mind to be present at that fleeting time. We only ever refer to time in relation to ourselves: we work from the idea of 'now', without actively wondering why it is accurate to label and isolate a particular moment as _the_ time. The universe told me that all time is _the _time, from the beginning of the universe to its end, one unbroken fabric of causality that links every moment to the next, meaning that from an objective standpoint everyone and everything may be said to be thousands or millions of years old."

"There is more, but I suspect that you ponies may be getting hungry by now." Without realizing it, Rainbow licked her lips, and Torric smiled. "Dorren, please take our guests someplace where they might fill their stomachs."

While they were on their way out, Rainbow thought she heard the whistling sound change again, and realized that it might be a form of music with extremely long notes.

Somehow, a meal had been prepared for them on the second floor by the time they got there: a massive plate, sitting on a table they couldn't reach the top of, covered with giant, lettuce-like leaves and large fruits, either whole or cut in half, which they could recognize about half of. Rainbow Dash gazed hungry at the titanic salad from the stairs, but could no longer see it once she passed the bottom step.

"Oh, sorry," said Dorren as he realized the inconvenience they'd been presented with. "Feel free to stand on the table." They flew up and did so, thanking him at which point he left with an elaborate bowing gesture that involved twirling his trunk.

"What did you guys think of the Elder?" asked Spitfire.

"I didn't quite follow everything he said, but overall it was pretty interesting," said Soarin', shrugging noncommittally.

"I thinkth—said Rainbow Dash, but she realized only after speaking that she had just taken a massive bite out of their shared salad. She swallowed, and started over: "I think he might have been _almost_ as smart as Twilight… _almost."_

Many miles away, deep underground, five ponies were combing ancient passageways for any sign of Twilight.

"Why would she make herself so hard to find?" asked Applejack despairingly. "What's she hidin' from?"

"We'll just have to ask her when we find her," sighed Rarity.

They'd been searching for hours. "I hate to say this," said Pinkie Pie, "but it's starting to look like we're not going to find her today."

"Well, we still need _some_ kinda plan for stayin' alive," said Applejack. "Maybe we should tell everypony to hole up in Maneheart while we look for Twilight?"

"We had Princess Luna to protect us last time," Fluttershy reminded her. "I don't think sending everypony in town into the Everfree Forest is exactly safe."

"That's it!" exclaimed Ditzy Doo. "Princes Luna! Maybe s_he_ can help us!"

"But she's all the way in Sustria," said Rarity. "Twilight may not be making herself easy to find, but I'm sure she'll turn up sooner than the time it would take to travel that distance."

It seemed that there was nothing for it but to keep searching, so they did. Finally, Pinkie Pie spotted something and alerted the others. As the rushed down the corridor, they were mystified by the sight of a glistening magical barrier covering a long passageway.

Right away, Rarity tried dispel it, but it was no use. "Who do you think made this?" asked Fluttershy. "Twilight, or Misty?"

"Hopefully Twilight," said Rarity. "Misty probably wouldn't have left any way for us to get through."

It occurred to them to try calling Twilight's name, but they got no response. Reluctantly, they turned around, unsure what they would do about their predicament now.

Back on the surface of Canterlot, Misty strode through a hallway filled with bruised and beaten royal guards. "You work for me now," she told them as she walked out the door. "Remember that."

She arrived back at the Wonderbolt Wing, startling Blizzard. "It's done," she told him. "You and I are now the _de facto_ rulers of Equestria." She went upstairs and released Spike from his cage, telling him: "You won't be seeing your friend Twilight for a while, so in the meantime, you can just be _my_ pet dragon, all right?" He glared at her with as much hatred as he could muster. She dragged him out the door with telekinesis.

"Blizzard, I'm going to go rain terror down on Ponyville now. You want to come with?"

The question sent a familiar, unpleasant twinge through him; he hadn't killed anything since Rose, and the urges were starting to come on strongly once again. Of course, he wasn't about to let Misty know that, so he simply said "I'm good, thanks. You have fun." As she flew away with Spike in tow, he sighed, deeply ashamed for not stopping her when he'd had the chance.

As Misty flew towards the center of Ponyville, she heard screams below, alerting everypony to her presence. She didn't care: there was no rush to corral all of them, and if they ran off into the forest to regroup, what then?

The thing to do, she decided, was to put them in a situation where they would have to do what she told them. After setting Spike down on a rooftop, she dived towards a pair of screaming fillies, magically hoisting them into the air before they could escape. Several fleeing ponies saw them and seemed to get the message, turning around to watch in helpless horror.

_"Don't run!"_ shouted Misty, _"if you don't want any harm to come to these helpless little ones!"_

Everypony who heard her stopped and turned around, some of them walking towards her as if to challenge her. "That's right," she purred. "It seems I can look forward to having all of you as my loyal subjects. Now, the first thing I want is a giant wall around Ponyville. Naturally I, as a powerful alicorn, will be willing to help in its construction, but I expect you all to cooperate, as well. If I see any disobedience, it will be _these_ fillies"—she gestured to Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, prompting them to flinch—"who suffer. Do I make myself clear?" The crowd muttered joylessly in the affirmative.

Several minutes later, she was overseeing the chopping of trees from the forest to use in the wall's construction. Her plan was to get as many ponies as possible inside the wall. Then, the real fun would begin.


	10. Chapter 10: The Brave Little Pegasus

Chapter 10: The Brave Little Pegasus

Five beleaguered ponies cautiously emerged from a stairwell into the live, active part of Canterlot, ready to run for cover at the first sign of a certain alicorn. They encountered a number of guards on the way, who of course had no reason to arrest them and helped direct them towards safety.

When they reached the castle's main entrance, Applejack stopped the others, saying "I'm thinkin' that if Misty catches us again, we won't be able to get away so easy. What's our plan for gettin' from here to Sustria without gettin' caught?"

They thought for a while as they walked down the road towards Ponyville. "We should split up," decided Fluttershy.

_"What?"_

"If we all get caught, there's no way any of us will be able to get to Luna," she explained, "but if we all travel separately, then it improves the odds that at least one of us will reach her."

"I can't say I like the idea of splitting up while Misty's out there," said Rarity, "but I have to admit it makes sense." Without another word, they gradually meandered off in different directions, with only Applejack still following the road while the others made for various long, looping courses around or entirely away from Ponyville.

As Applejack neared the town, she felt a sense of dread at the sight of a partly-constructed wall. She would work based on Fluttershy's idea, she decided, by trying to sneak right through town, just in case Misty was busy looking everywhere else. She noticed how quickly the wall had been erected, however, and realized, heart pounding, that this probably wasn't the case.

Fortunately, all of the parts wall built so far were on the opposite side of the town from where she entered it, and she found that she could slip through the town's back alleys while attracting minimal notice. Her heart skipped a beat, however, when she saw Misty flying over the wall a few hundred yards away, levitating a small tree alongside her. An extra layer of caution insinuated itself into Applejack's movements; she would double, triple, quadruple check that the coast was clear before running from one alley to the next.

It wasn't until she was past the wall, on the road heading south that she realized she was horribly exposed, and broke into a mad dash. She cursed herself for creating so much noise, however, as she heard an unmistakable rushing sound behind her, and a sense of terrifying helplessness traveled all the way up her hooves and to the tips of her ears as the Wonderbolt landed mere feet away from her.

"Say," she said, beginning to circle Applejack, "aren't you one of Princess Twilight's friends?"

Applejack gulped.

"Where's everypony else?" Misty asked, looking around. "Is there a party going on somewhere? Am _I_ not invited?"

"I ain't scared o' you," Applejack told her, and Misty laughed at the obvious untruth.

"Come now, none of that. Why don't you just come with me back to the castle, so I don't have to humiliate you by dragging you across the dirt?" When Applejack didn't move, Misty followed through with her threat, flying away and magically forcing Applejack to follow along behind her, albeit while lying on her side. On the way, she picked up Spike and set him on her back. Not wanting to fall from such a height, he held on tight to her mane as she returned to Canterlot.

Eventually, Misty allowed Applejack to stand up and walk, which she grudgingly did, trying to shake off some of the dirt that had accumulated her. When Misty took her underground, she feared she was about to be killed, but she was taken instead to the dungeon, and locked in with Spike.

"I'm not going to waste time trying to interrogate you," the Wonderbolt told her, "because I know you won't tell me a thing. Instead, I'm going to track down every last member of your little gang and make sure I have you all packed in here just in case Twilight catches wind of what's going on. She'll be _quite_ reasonable about all this if all her friends' lives are at stake, don't you agree?"

As Misty flew away, Applejack kicked the bars of her cell without results.

"Don't worry," she said, turning to Spike. "There's still four more ponies on their way to Sustria. There's no way she's gonna find all of us."

Meanwhile, Rarity slunk through the tall grass of a field near Ponyville, periodically surveying the skies. She noticed a quarry off in the distance, and decided that the rocks would provide her with better cover.

Halfway there, some intuition of hers told her she was in danger, so she crouched low and looked towards Ponyville. Sure enough, she spotted somepony flying around—not straight towards her, much to her relief, but still staying in her general vicinity.

Every time it looked like Misty was far away enough not to see her moving, Rarity would shuffle forward through the grass as far as she dared before glancing behind her. Slowly, agonizingly, she progressed closer and closer to the rocks until finally she broke into a mad dash, hiding behind the largest rock and panting.

Suddenly there was a rushing sound whose meaning her brain processed all the more slowly because of her stark terror at the realization. She was still frozen with shock when Misty landed right next to her, strutting around the rock, staring straight at her and savoring the sweet taste of another victory.

Pinkie Pie felt a chill run up her spine as she heard a rustle in some nearby bushes. She regretted entering the Everfree Forest, but was somewhat comforted by the thought that if anything did come chasing after her in the woods, it probably wouldn't be Misty.

Unsure which direction the sound had come from, she broke from the sparse path she'd been following and cantered away in a random direction, dodging trees as she sped up. After several seconds, however, she heard the rustling again, and turned sharply, heading for a patch of light shining through the trees. She burst out onto a plain, and jumped approximately twenty feet in the air as she heard the sound of someone else tumbling out some twenty feet away.

It was Fluttershy.

"Wait… that was _you?_" asked Pinkie Pie. "I thought I was being chased by monster!"

"I thought the same thing!" said Fluttershy.

"Well, one of us should go back into to the forest," decided Pinkie. "It won't do us any good to stay together if we _both_ get"—

She stopped talking as she noticed the terrified look on Fluttershy's face. Slowly turning around, she saw the dreaded alicorn diving towards them, with such speed that their hopes of escaping died then and there.

Soon, Pinkie and Fluttershy found themselves thrown into a dungeon cell, where they were dismayed to see Applejack and Rarity.

"That's all of us, then?" sighed Rarity.

"'Fraid so," agreed Applejack.

"No, wait!" said Pinkie Pie. "Aren't we forgetting somepony?"

They all thought hard. "Yeah…" said Applejack. "Who was it, though? I think she was a pegasus…"

"Are you thinking of Rainbow Dash?" asked Fluttershy.

"Yeah, probably, but she's still off adventurin'. How's she s'posed to help us?"

"I feel like there was someone else…" said Rarity, racking her brain.

Pinkie Pie did a quick head count. "No, I think we've all been caught. There's always six of us, remember?"

"Huh?"

"Whenever we all hang out, there's six of us," she explained. There's Twilight, Rainbow Dash, you three, and me."

"Then that's it," despaired Rarity. "It's hopeless."

A couple miles away, Ditzy Doo stopped in her tracks, trying to remember where exactly she was supposed to be going. She looked around: there was Ponyville, some distance behind her, and there was the road, several hundred yards to her right, and there was the Everfree Forest…

She shrugged, deciding that the answer would come to her eventually. She flew off into the unknown, swaying slightly side to side, determined to do whatever it was she was supposed to do.


	11. Chapter 11: Unseen and Unheard

Chapter 11: Unseen and Unheard

Rainbow Dash and the other Wonderbolts spent their first night in Proboscitaeria in a guest house constructed hours after their initial arrival—not that that made it shabby. The elephants' trunks doubled as amazing tools, it seemed, for they created in a day a dwelling that would have taken pony carpenters months to build. In the morning, they were treated to another giant salad—one so satiating that the five of them together were unable to finish eating it.

As Spitfire stepped out, she encountered a large crowd of elephants that had apparently been waiting outside the guest house for some time. "Can I help you?" she asked, confused.

"We're holding a festival today in the town square," one of them explained. "You and your companions should come."

After they followed the enthused elephants to the town square, Rainbow Dash had the idea to entertain their hosts with their flying acrobatics. As they soared and whirled and twirled through the air, leaving impossibly beautiful weather patterns in their wake, they were forced to improvise heavily due to Blizzard and Misty's absence, and they made a few minor fumbles—but of course the elephants, who had never before seen any pegasi (or any ponies at all), saw nothing but raw skill pure perfection. The impression was the same as if the Wonderbolts had been performing real magic.

The elephants let out deafening cheers, waving their trunks and stomping the ground as ponies would, practically causing an earthquake. Once it was safe to do so, the Wonderbolts set hoof on the ground, soaking up the adulation.

"Such unearthly grace!" commended a slightly chubby elephant whose name was Nolus. "Do _all _pegasi fly like that where you come from?"

"Unfortunately, no," replied Soarin'.

"Yeah," added Rainbow Dash, "we're pretty much the best."

As the day wore on, the ponies relaxed into their role as an audience to the elephant's performances. They listened to music played with instruments so low that half the notes were below their hearing range, and they watched dances that advertised the dexterity of the dancers' trunks. They were most impressed of all by a burly elephant who juggled small trees as if they were twigs.

"I still need to get at least one souvenir for my friends," Rainbow whispered to Spitfire, "but I'm not sure how to ask."

"Just be subtle, I guess."

She looked around at the trinkets the elephants were wearing, the flower decorations that hung everywhere, and even the food. Then she noticed the Elder merrily swaying his trunk side to side to the beat of the current dance, and an idea struck her.

"Elder—I mean, Torric—I don't mean to bother you, but, well…"

-"No bother at all, Rainbow Dash. What is it that you wish to speak with me about?"

"I have a friend back home named Twilight Sparkle—in fact, she's the princess of my homeland—and she's really smart and from what I know she's interested in the, um, universe and that sort of thing, so, well"—

-"Be straight with me, Rainbow Dash. If there is anything you wish, simply make it known to me so that I may grant it."

"You had a lot of strange instruments and gizmos in your tower," she said, still shy about asking for one of the Elder's possessions. "I think my friend would really like to study one of them—if that's okay with you, that is."

While the festival was still going on, Torric took Rainbow back to his tower, which they gradually ascended while Torric explained the uses of different objects on each floor.

"This is my telescope, which I use to observe the motions of heavenly bodies.

_Twilight already has at least two of those,_ thought Rainbow Dash, _and one of them is magic._

"I use this to measure sounds that are too high or low in pitch to be heard by elephants." He indicated a shining, silver apparatus with needle-like, slowly rotating attachments and a dial marked with foreign characters.

Rainbow remembered something Twilight had told her a few months ago: _Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense seems to have something to do with extrasensory perception: sounds that are outside our hearing range, and colors that are outside the visible spectrum. _Twilight would probably love to get her hooves on something that imitated Pinkie Sense, she decided, so she accepted the Elder's gift.

"Don't worry about bringing it back," the Elder said as he gave it to Rainbow Dash with his trunk. "I have many more where that one came from." She bowed and thanked him, and then they made their way back to the festival. As she listened to the slow, relaxing song of the (relatively) small elephant on stage, she sank into the beat, absently wondering if everypony was having fun back home without her.

Back in the dungeons of Canterlot, four ponies were languishing in the dungeons when Misty walked in, causing them all to flinch as her horn glowed. As it turned out, however, she was simply opening the door. All of them stared, frozen in place, not daring to make a run for it when suddenly she dragged out Fluttershy and Applejack, eliciting loud protests from the other two before she closed the door again.

"We're going to play a little game," she said simply, "just a fun activity to pass the time while we wait for your dear friend Twilight to come back." She locked the two struggling ponies in a cell separate from the others.

"I'm warnin' you," snarled Applejack, "if Twilight comes back n' finds us dead, yer gonna be in fer a world of hurt!"

"Of course," waved Misty dismissively, "which is why I'll wait until I deal with her before killing you. Like I said, the point of this exercise is just to pass the time."

Pinkie Pie and Rarity looked fearfully, trying not to think about what horrible tortures might be in store for their friends.

"Applejack," said the Wonderbolt, her horn beginning glow, "I want you to lie down on the ground." Grudgingly, she did so. Misty continued: "Now, Fluttershy, I want you to kick your friend Applejack for me."

"Wh—what?"

"You heard me." The glow from her horn intensified, lighting the deranged grin on her face.

"I don't care _what_ you do to me," declared Fluttershy defiantly. "I'm _not _hurting my friend."

"Well, of _course_ you don't care what I do to _you,"_ sighed Misty, sounding exasperated. "That's why I'm doing it to her instead." With that, she discharged an electric bolt from her horn, which struck Applejack's prone form and caused her to scream in pain, eliciting gasps from the others.

"Now," said Misty, with infuriating calm, "I will ask you again: kick Applejack for me. Either you hurt her a little bit, or I'll hurt her a whole lot more."

Fluttershy glanced down at a wincing Applejack, more afraid and confused than ever. "But… I…"

-"Do it," said Applejack weakly. "Let's just do what she says and get all this over with, alright?"

Fluttershy whimpered, but nodded, and kicked Applejack as lightly as she could.

"That _not _what I meant," growled Misty. "I want you to kick her _hard._ Do it right, or she'll get zapped again."

This time, Fluttershy swallowed the growing lump in her throat, closed her eyes, and swung her hoof forward. She felt an icy shock run right through her heart as she heard a loud yelp from below.

"Applejack, I'm _so _sorry"—

-"It's _fine_, sugarcube; you didn't have a choice…"

Rarity stomped on the floor of her cell, causing a tiny cloud of dust to rise up. "I hope you realize you're going to pay _dearly_ for your atrocities!"

Misty rolled her eyes. "I don't see how. I've planned out everything I need to do, and prepared myself to deal with anyone and everyone who might try and stop me. Are you implying there's some magical force running through the universe that enforces right and wrong?"

Rarity opened her mouth to provide a retort, but couldn't think of one.

"You know what?" said Misty. "I think you're all too rebellious to play with right now. I'm going to come back another day, and when I do, I hope you can all be a little more compliant." She flew off as they glared at her, hating her more than they'd known it was possible to hate anypony.

Blizzard was shivering uncontrollably as he lay in the corner of his room. Misty had left him there days ago with food and water, and then sealed the windows and doors so that he couldn't escape. Suddenly, he heard the door open, and he instinctively held perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe as two sets of hoofsteps entered the room.

"Oh, Blizzard," said a horribly familiar voice, "I brought you a friend. I hope the two of you get along."

As quickly as he could, Blizzard lunged towards the door, ignoring the terrified-looking brown mare standing next to Misty and bowling over his former teammate, not even attempting to fight the bloodlust that had been gradually eating away at him for so long. The other pony jumped back from them, shrieking. As they tumbled out into the hallway, he tried to sink his teeth into her throat, but she flung him away at the last millisecond.

"Blizzard, Blizzard, Blizzard," she said, shaking her head as he struggled and seethed against the magic that had him pinned against the wall. "I know we have our differences of opinion, but I really do value our friendship, and I really _wish_ you could do the same." He spat at her.

He continued to struggle as hard as he could, but even if he'd been a hundred times stronger, he couldn't have done anything against Misty. With one final goodbye, she shoved him and his hapless new "friend" back into the room and sealed the door again, knowing perfectly well what would happen next.


	12. Chapter 12: The Old Dragon

Chapter 12: The Old Dragon

As Twilight worked her magic, her breathing was so slow that she might have been inhaling the whole time, or exhaling. She tensed suddenly, however, as she realized that one of her sources of energy was running out.

_This isn't good,_she thought to herself, but since Luna still hadn't come back from Sustria, she was afraid to leave the enchantments alone, lest they run out too quickly.

_I've already committed. If I tear away from the enchantments now, I'll take too much of their magic with me. I just hope everypony can deal with this on their own._

Up on the surface, three fillies emerged from Applejack's barn, glancing about fearfully.

"C'mon," whispered Scootaloo. "I _refuse_ to spend another day in that barn."

"I just hope it's safe out," said Applebloom.

"Hey," said Sweetie Belle nervously, "how long exactly has there been a giant wall around the town?" A deep sense of hopelessness set into them as they gazed at the thing, realizing that Misty must have planned something terrible for the ponies of Ponyville.

"Let's go look for Applejack 'n the others," suggested Applebloom.

As the feared, there was no one hope in Applejack's house, and nor in Rarity's when they looked there. They searched Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy's cottage, and even the library, but there were no ponies to be found in any of those places—though there were a few anxiously walking through the streets.

"S'cuse me," said Applebloom to the pony with the hourglass cutie mark, "but have you seen my sister Applejack anywhere?"

"Well, she was passing through town yesterday, but I haven't seen her since then."

After an hour or so of looking for the four ponies, they started to slow down. As they followed the inner circumference of the wall at a place where it intersected a small meadow, Applebloom stopped walking and looked down at the ground.

"Applebloom?"

"They shoulda' found Twilight by now." Her voice was starting to crack up, and there were small tears just beginning to well up in her eyes. "It wouldn't make sense for Applejack to leave me for so long… not when Misty's still out killin' ponies."

Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to say something comforting, but closed it when she realized that she was starting to cry, too.

"We have to keep looking," Scootaloo insisted halfheartedly. "There must be _somewhere_ we haven't looked…"

Sweetie Belle was sobbing now. "But—what if they're not—_anywhere? _What if Misty found them and…"

"I don't want to think about it," choked Applebloom, shaking her head furiously. "I _don't want to…"_

As Applebloom and Sweetie Belle cried, they felt strangely ashamed to look one other in the eyes, as though the sense of fear and despair weighing upon them was too intense to be decently shared. If only it had been something less terrible they were afraid of, they might have cried on each others' shoulders—but as things were they couldn't even walk that far, so they collapsed and cried into the wet grass. Every time they thought they were done, one of them would start sobbing again and the rest would join.

Finally, after what felt like an immensely long time, they fell silent, and Scootaloo said softly: "Well, we can't just do _nothing_. We need to stay strong, and go find Princess Luna ourselves so that she can stop Misty."

"Yer right," said Applebloom, sniffling and standing up. "We can't waste another minute."

Their first order of business was finding a way to the other side of the wall. It seemed as though Misty had intentionally built it without any kind of entrances, since she herself could simply fly over it, and they were beginning to lose hope when Scootaloo spotted a creek flowing under the wall. They inspected it carefully to make sure there was no grate blocking their path, and then they dived in, surfacing on the other side once the current had carried them through.

"Now," declared Scootaloo after shaking herself off, "we have to find the road that leads south." She walked over to a nearby tree, snapped off a stick, returned to the creek and started drawing a crude map in the mud. When she was finished, she pointed to a spot on the edge of a circle representing the wall. "This is where we are now. This road here will lead us to Hoofington, and then we can take the train to Saddleton, which is right next to the Sustrian border."

"How d'you know all this?" asked Applebloom.

"Rainbow Dash told me about the time she and the others went there. Now, let's move."

Before long, they found the road to Hoofington, and as they galloped down it, taking a few backwards glances, they hoped desperately against hope that the older ponies were still alive somewhere.

A sudden flash of light from somewhere snapped Blizzard from his unthinking misery, and as he looked towards the tingling sensation on his flank he saw a familiar shape forming upon it: his old skull cutie mark. Normally, the sight would have unsettled him, but it was nothing compared to the disfigured corpse lying in the corner of the room.

_That's me all right, _he thought dryly. _Let no one say my cutie mark didn't suit me perfectly._ He wondered about his future, about how he would meet his grisly end when it came (at Misty's hooves, no doubt), and he wondered how everything in his life could have possibly gone so wrong.

Meanwhile, Misty paced around the top of the wall, admiring her work. As she gazed across her new subjects, cowering in fear in the streets and in their homes, she thought she heard a distant rumble: _a storm? _she wondered. _But that doesn't make sense. Before I was stronger than any unicorn, I was faster in the air than nearly any pegasus… so why summon a storm against me?_

As the sound grew closer, however, she realized that it was a deep roar, and that it was coming from the Everfree Forest. With a loud crash of breaking branches, a great red dragon rose up above the trees, flying directly towards Ponyville.

_Well, that's silly. Doesn't he know about the barrier…?_

He must not have, because he flew right through it without getting so much as a bruise.

"Alright then," muttered Misty, "let's see what you've got." Without stopping to wonder whether it was a good idea, she charged at the dragon, meeting it in the air with a deafening _thud_ as it slammed against her force-field. As it fell downwards, its long neck waving like a drunken snake, Misty continued her assault by diving at it and hurling balls of magical energy.

The dragon roared in anguish as her attacks struck it, but it managed to land on its feet as the grass rose up to meet it. After recovering from the shock of the fall, it breathed a massive flame up at Misty, who easily dispersed the attack.

For over an hour, she continually took potshots at the creature, causing it to become increasingly enraged as it lashed out at her again and again, unable to land a single blow. Finally, it stopped, and stood still, staring at her with cold fury.

"You are strong, like the old ones," he said in a deep voice that sounded the way the smoke gently billowing from his nostrils looked. "Yet, your movements are clumsy, like those of a child."

"Hmph!" scoffed Misty. "Could a child dance circles around you? Could a child single-hoofedly win a fight against a _dragon?"_

"I meant," growled the dragon, "that you are like a child compared to _them."_

"Who?"

"The old ones. The alicorns."

Misty realized that Celestia and Luna must have encountered this dragon, at some point, and most likely fought it as well. "Their time is over," she declared with pride. "One of them is dead, and the other soon to follow." She started flying in circles around the dragon, so that if he tried a surprise attack, she would already have some momentum to work with.

"You can never be like them. Not without thousands of years of fighting experience, at least, and I doubt they will leave you be for that long if you intend to kill them."

She looked away from him. "I'll find a way. I always do."

"Remember my warning, young alicorn."

Misty was beginning to feel disturbed. She'd been hoping to beat the brute down, make him beg for his life, turn him into a powerful servant, yet here he was, speaking from the wisdom of great age and telling her that her death was imminent.

"Luna is the weak one," she said, more to herself than to him. "I can beat her easily.

The dragon said nothing. A sudden flush of rage filled Misty, and she sent a fiery bolt towards his head. She expected him to dodge, but he didn't even flinch as the bolt passed through his eye and into his brain, killing him instantly. She stared at his corpse for a while, relieved that he was finally silent, and flew back to town in search of more unicorns.

By the next day, five Wonderbolts had finished their stay in Proboscitaeria untroubled, and Rainbow Dash even got her hooves on another souvenir: a large satchel filled with all kinds of seeds, along with detailed instructions for growing them into trees that would bear exotic fruits. She intended to give the seeds to Applejack, of course, but there were still three more gifts to find, and she wanted to make sure they were as good as the first two.

A few hours after they'd said their goodbyes to the elephants and flown away, they stopped in the foothills of some very large mountains in order to eat and rest. Gradually, they had settled into the soreness that came with flying all day, and even after their short reprieve in the elephants' land, their aching muscles felt like a natural part of their bodies—comfortable, in an odd sort of way, especially since it was gradually beginning to subside as their endurance improved.

As Tyco was adding new details to his maps, he turned to the others and asked "Hey, any of you ever seen a Griffon?"

Rainbow Dash thought about Gilda. She shrugged ambiguously. "Why do you ask?"

"If my maps are right, we're not too far from their kingdom. It might be worth paying them a visit."

"That reminds me, why didn't Celestia ever send us to kill griffons?" asked Blast. "Why was it always pigs?"

"I think it was because Sustria was so close that the weather differences would be too noticeable," offered Soarin'. "Ponies would start asking questions. Also, Princess Luna once told me that Celestia had an 'agreement' with the griffon king, though I didn't think much of it at the time."

"Well, I think we should go," said Tyco. "Right now, I only have a rough location, and I really think we should map out their borders. The alternative would be heading north into the mountains, and there's no guarantee anyone or anything lives up there."

"What about the ocean?" Rainbow Dash quickly suggested. "We could try to find out if there's anything on the other side."

"Even less of a guarantee there," dismissed Tyco. "There wouldn't be any grass to eat, or even anyplace to land."

"I'm in favor of going to see the griffons," said Spitfire. "I'm curious to know what kind of deal the princess made with them.

Everypony chimed in with their agreement, except for Rainbow Dash, who was silent. For all she knew, though, the Griffon Kingdom was a big place, and the odds of her meeting Gilda were a million to one.

"Alright," she announced, "I'm on board." With that, they flew off once again.

Many miles away, Ditzy Doo soared amongst the clouds, scanning the ground for something, anything that might remind her where she was supposed to be going.


	13. Chapter 13: Reunion

Chapter 13: Reunion

_Author's note: there is a possibility that this chapter will be in flagrant violation of canon after season 2 has come out._

The Wonderbolts knew they had reached the griffon kingdom not when they saw the buildings, but when a squadron of griffons surrounded them in the air above a craggy wasteland. They all carried spears, which they pointed menacingly at the ponies.

"Why have you come here, ponies?" asked one of them gruffly.

"We bear news of the death of Princess Celestia," announced Soarin'. "She was succeeded several months ago by her protégé, Twilight Sparkle.

The griffons gave each other meaningful looks. Then, one of them asked "You're the Wonderbolts, aren't you? The famous flying team?"

"That's us."

"Equestria's special forces, then. It's an honor." He bowed, causing him to momentarily lose altitude before flapping back up again.

Blast shook her head. "We don't do that anymore. Princess Twilight has a very different way of handling the country."

She began to explain how Celestia's rule had come to an end, but the griffons insisted that the ponies should speak before the king, so they set off. Rainbow Dash looked around, trying to spot the griffons' city, but eventually realized that they were already over it: various rocky pillars and cliffs had served as sites to carve out caves, in which they had built aeries of wildly varying sizes. There was no outdoor architecture, creating the illusion that the land was untamed.

The king's dwelling place stood out, however: a great, tower-like spire rising up from amongst the reddish boulders, covered with balconies and entrances everywhere except at its base. The griffons led the ponies inside, where hallways had been carved out, smoothed, and detailed with intricate designs. The spire's inside was in stark contrast to its primitive-looking exterior.

A murmur followed them as they were brought before the griffon king, who sat in an opulent throne made from some bizarre, massive, purple-leafed plant that looked like it might still be alive. After seeing their guides bow, the ponies did the same.

The king snorted. "Prisoners, I presume?"

"No, your highness," said one of the griffons quickly, "these are the Wonderbolts, Equestria's elite pegasus warriors—though they are warriors no longer, I am told."

The king stood up and leaned forward, narrowing his eyes at these new guests. "They don't look _nearly_ old enough to have retired from battle… and yet you say they are the elite?"

"It's not that we're retired," explained Spitfire, "it's just that our job description has changed now that we have a new princess. Right now, we're exploring new lands to add to our nation's knowledge of the world. Equestria doesn't need a military anymore."

This last sentence sent a wave of shocked murmurs through the griffons in the room. It was as if she'd said that Equestria didn't need an economy, or that ponies could survive without food by absorbing sunlight.

"You ponies are strange folk," observed the king. "Someday, I should like to meet this new princess of yours and ask her about this policy of perpetual peace. As I understood it, Princess Celestia needed a good deal of brute force simply to keep her own nation under control."

"We were hoping to ask you about that," said Soarin', "since Celestia's no longer around to tell us. What exactly was the nature of her agreement with the griffon kingdom?"

The king seemed to look wistfully off into the distance as he recalled. "We were to keep a very close eye on any ponies that found their way into our midst, and if any ever came to our land harboring a clear desire to overthrow the Equestrian crown, we were to prevent them from ever returning home." Then, looking directly at Rainbow Dash with a dangerous, yellow-eyed stare, he added: "We griffons earned many a meal out of that bargain." She gulped. The king continued: "How did such a powerful being as Celestia meet her end, anyway?"

The others looked at Rainbow Dash, and she realized it was because she'd been present when Celestia had died, so she told them. At one point, the griffon king stopped her and asked her to clarify the nature of her suicide, so Rainbow explained the nature of the magical sacrifice to the best of her understanding. However, the king stopped her once again, and only then did she realize, with some surprise, that it was the concept of suicide itself that mystified him (and, judging by their reactions, the rest of the griffons in the room), so she explained that. When she had finished, the king said:

"To take one's own life… I must say, you ponies truly are an enigma."

"Well, it's not like we _encourage_ it or anything," said Rainbow Dash, more defensively than she meant to. "Anyways, in Celestia's case it was… complicated." She went on to explain the changes Twilight had made as Princess, how she was removing the enchantments and returning Equestria to its natural state. The griffons wanted to establish trade relations with Equestria, and so began talk of resources, exchange rates and tariffs, some of which were over Rainbow's head, prompting Blast to step in. After a few hours, they concluded the meeting on what seemed like a promising tone, and left with rough maps of the kingdom's borders.

Since the griffons were carnivores, the ponies were forced to stop and eat from sparse patches of vegetation dotted across the landscape—so sparse, in fact, that their grazing necessitated a gradual journey of a few hundred yards. Every so often, one or more griffons would land near them and ask them a few questions, or simply observe them from afar before moving on. After hearing what the king had said about griffons eating ponies, this made Rainbow Dash uncomfortable, but she tried her best to ignore their stares—that is, except for the one stare she couldn't ignore, a pair of bright yellow eyes that widened with recognition just as her own did.

"Something wrong, Rainbow?" asked Soarin'. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Blast glanced over at the griffon standing stock-still some thirty feet away. "Do you know her or something?"

"Gilda?" asked Rainbow as she drew closer, flicking her lion-like tail side to side with apprehension.

"Dash, it really is you! What are you doing all the way out here?" As she looked at her friend's companions, her surprise grew, and she asked "Are those…?"

"The Wonderbolts," finished Rainbow Dash, shrugging modestly.

"And you're… on the team now?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Gilda stared at her, dumbstruck, for a moment. Then, to Rainbow's surprise, she smiled.

"That's _amazing! _I mean, you were always fast, but I thought making the cut took a little more… y'know, experience."

Rainbow Dash blushed. "What can we say?" Soarin' chimed in. "She's a prodigy."

She realized she'd forgotten to introduce her Gilda, so she turned to the Wonderbolts and said "Guys, this is my old friend Gilda. Gilda, Wonderbolts."

Gilda looked troubled. "Hey, Dash? Is it alright if I talk to you in private?"

"Yeah… sure."

They walked over to a faded trail that meandered up a steep cliff-side. "Looks like you've done pretty well for yourself." Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Gilda continued: "I was totally immature the last time we saw each other. Can I say that? And, well"—her voice grew smaller—"I'm sorry."

The pegasus replied with a reassuring smile. "Don't sweat it. You wouldn't believe the things I've been through since then—what happened before is ancient history."

"Glad to hear it."

They shared some of what had transpired in the past year or so, but of course it would have taken hours for Rainbow Dash to give her adventures justice, so they returned to the Wonderbolts, who expressed relief that Gilda hadn't eaten their teammate, to which she simply raised an eyebrow.

"Oh," said Rainbow, "I almost forgot: I'm collecting souvenirs for my friends back home, and I was wondering if you could recommend anything that we wouldn't have back in Equestria."

Gilda thought for a moment. "There _is_ a diamond mine over in Talonsford. I could show you the way there, if you want."

As they walked, Rainbow Dash began telling Gilda the incredible story of how she and her friends had once saved Equestria, relishing the experience of having her old friend back.

Spike's pleasant dreams were rudely interrupted by Misty as she slung him over her back. "Come along, now," she said, though she wasn't giving him much of a choice. As she flew him down to a lower part of the castle, he wondered what terrors she had in store for him.

As it turned out, she was taking him to the dungeon, where she opened the cell and ordered Rarity to step out, which she did with her head held high, refusing to show any fear. Earlier, she had done the same with the other three, and each of them had come back in one piece. As Misty led her to another room, images of torture and death swarmed frantically through the unicorn's brain, but they ended up stopping in a stairwell.

"Rarity," began Misty in what sounded like a concerned tone (which of course told her nothing about the alicorn's intentions), "I'm going to be totally frank with you: I have reason to believe that your friend Spike here has been sneaking little morsels into your cell for you and your friends. Now, if you feel that I haven't been giving you enough to eat, just give me the word and I'll provide you with whatever you ask for. However, if _this_ little rascal"—she nuzzled Spike's head, causing him to flinch—"has been getting out of his room, I'd rather know about it right away. I mean, so far it's only been pastries, but what if he were help you, I don't know, _escape?"_

Rarity looked at Spike, who looked just as confused as she was. "Beg pardon?" she asked. "No one's been bringing us pastries." Her entire coat felt like it was tingling. Would Misty believe her? What was going on?

"Now, Rarity," sighed Misty, "don't try to dance around the issue with me. I've _seen _the crumbs in your cell, and the ones on the dungeon floor. Obviously _someone_ has been bringing you treats, and I just _assumed_ it might be your little dragon friend."

Rarity began to panic even more. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Misty scrutinized her expression for a moment, and then shrugged. "All I'm saying," she said, walking back towards the cell, "is that crumbs keep showing up in your cell, and any _good_ friend would share food in situation as dire as yours."

After Rarity was locked up again with the others, they crowded around her, asking if she was hurt, what Misty had done to her. She opened her mouth to reply, but closed it as she spotted crumbs on the floor, just as Misty had said.

"Well… she said some things to intimidate me, and I suppose I _am_ a little shaken, but don't any of you worry—I'll be all right."

That night, (or day; it was impossible to tell) as she lay in her pile of rags, she kept her eyes slightly open, glancing about for any sign of movement. She felt guilty for suspecting her friends of hiding something from her, and for not telling them what Misty had said… but, then again, where _had_ the crumbs come from? The answer might have been forthcoming, but she would never know—against her will, she drifted off to sleep, her suspicious thoughts melting away into the abyss.

She awoke before the others and surveyed them groggily in the dim candlelight. She froze as her gaze fell on Pinkie, whose sleeping face was covered in crumbs.

Rarity smiled to herself. _Really? Does Misty _really_ think I'd fall for such an obvious trick? First she feeds us barely anything, to make us weak with hunger, and then she tries to make us suspect each other of betrayal…_ She closed her eyes, preparing to go back to sleep, when the sound of movement prompted her to open them just a crack, so that it still looked like she was asleep.

To her surprise, Pinkie was bolt upright, glancing around furtively. She got up, walked to the corner of the cell, and vigorously wiped the crumbs off of her face before returning to her rags, curling up, and falling back asleep.


	14. Chapter 14: The Guild

Chapter 14: The Guild

The Cutie Mark Crusaders made it to Hoofington without incident, but were baffled by the busy crowds of grown-ups walking every which way. They collectively realized that money wasn't among the things they'd thought to bring, and hoped against hope that this wouldn't be too much of an obstacle.

"S'cuse me," said Applebloom to an elderly mare. "We're lookin' fer the train station. Would you mind pointin' us in the right direction?"

The older pony looked around. "Where are your parents?"

"For us, that's a troubling question at the best of times," said Scootaloo dismissively. "The important thing is that an evil alicorn named Misty has built a giant wall around Ponyville and started killing innocent unicorns, so we need to get to Sustria and warn Princess Luna so she can come back and rescue everypony."

The mare looked even more concerned now. "I _did_ hear about the wall, but not a killer alicorn…"

Scootaloo turned to the others, looking fearful. "I guess none of the refugees from Ponyville came here."

"Look, whatever's going on, I'm _sure_ you fillies shouldn't be traveling across the country on your own…"

"_Someone_ has to tell Princess Luna what's going on!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle.

"Well, I'm sure we can see to that…"

Applebloom was about to reiterate the seriousness of the situation when she noticed something over the old mare's shoulder, and shouted "The train!" The fillies galloped towards it, ignoring the pleas to stop that followed them as they slipped on board amidst a dense crowd of much taller ponies.

As they took their seats, Applebloom said "I wonder if she'll send anypony to tell Luna what's going on?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "If somepony she's never met comes along and tries to see her but she's busy, she might not talk to them right away. We kind-of-sort-of got to know her when we were in Maneheart, so that'll help us get an audience with her."

As the train rumbled across the countryside, the fillies tried to focus their attention on their goal, and not to think about what might have happened to the older ponies.

Meanwhile, Misty cruised through the skies over Ponyville before landing on a cloud and surveying her domain. As she was looking around, she noticed something new on her flank—well, sort of new. _Are you back for good, old friend? _she thought as she studied her skull-shaped cutie mark.

Earlier that day, a hydra had wandered near Ponyville from Froggy Bottom Bog, and Misty had chained it to a group of thick trees. It might be useful, she decided, to keep her subjects in line by threatening them with something large and menacing, and she hoped to catch more such creatures in the future.

She had also been sacrificing more unicorns to herself, but at the moment it didn't seem there was any way to adequately test how much stronger her magic was getting. It would be best to simply err on the side of caution, she decided before flying off into the distance in search of new victims.

In the dungeons, Rarity kept glancing at Pinkie Pie uneasily, hoping she wouldn't notice. Finally, she decided to ask: "Pinkie Pie?"

"Yeah?"

"Hypothetically, if someone were bringing you extra food, you'd tell us, right?"

Pinkie's eyes widened. "Of course I would, Rarity. Wouldn't _you?"_

"Well, yes! That psychopathic Wonderbolt hardly gives us anything to eat, and I'd never let my friends starve…"

-"Neither would I!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "What's all this about extra food, now?" Rarity directed her attention to the crumbs scattered in the corner of their cell. Pinkie Pie suddenly wore an expression of barely concealed panic.

"There must be some other explanation," said Fluttershy. "I _know_ none of us would hide food from each other."

"That don't explain the crumbs, though," Applejack pointed out.

Rarity realized that Pinkie was staring at her, though she looked away immediately after they made eye contact.

"Some extra food would be nice," sighed Fluttershy. "I've been feeling so faint lately…"

Hardly thinking, Rarity blurted out "It was Pinkie Pie!" In less than a second, all eyes were on her. Not daring to look any of them in the eyes, she stared at the ground and continued: "When we were asleep, I woke up and saw her brushing the crumbs off of her mouth. I'm sorry, Pinkie, but I just couldn't…" she trailed off.

Pinkie was flabbergasted. _"Really?"_ she asked in a tone of utter disbelief. "I didn't think it was possible, but you actually decided to frame me!"

_"Frame_ you?"

"Yes! I first noticed the crumbs on my mouth days ago, and I swear I didn't put them there, so at first I thought _some_pony was trying to frame me, but I decided it wasn't possible that"—

_-"Why would I frame you?"_

"Why would _I_ hide food?"

Suddenly, they a foot away from each other, glaring fiercely. For the first time since they'd met, each felt seriously threatened by the other.

When next they slept, they did so in shifts of what seemed like a couple hours. Rarity's turn came third, and passed without event, and she was followed by Pinkie Pie.

_If someone's going to bring her food, it'll happen now_, thought Rarity as she almost-closed her eyes and began pretending to sleep. Some time passed without incident, and just as she was beginning to drift off against her will, she heard soft hoofsteps coming from somewhere in the dungeon.

She stiffened as the sound drew closer, until finally their source was in plain sight and she leapt to her feet shouting _"She's here! It's Misty!"_

Immediately, the other three were bolt upright, and saw the Wonderbolt standing near the bars of their cell and levitating a muffin.

"Of course!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, slapping her forehead. "How could I have thought it was _Rarity?"_

Rarity's stomach sank—however briefly, she had seriously suspected Pinkie of betraying her.

"O' course it was you!" spat Applejack at Misty. "What is yer major malfunction, anyway?"

Misty shrugged. "I suppose it's probably that I lack basic empathy and display sociopathic tendencies, but enough about me. I really must applaud you all for not eating each other alive like I'd hoped."

"It's because we're not sick in the head, like _you,_" retorted Pinkie.

"I suppose I can't argue with that," admitted Misty, "but I do expect we'll get better results from our next game."

With that, she opened the cell door, dragged Fluttershy out, and locked the others in. She hovered directly in front of the pegasus's face, and gleefully breathed just one word:

"Run."

A vast distance away, Rainbow Dash had just finished saying her goodbyes to Gilda and taken off with her teammates. She'd picked out the biggest, shiniest-looking diamonds to give to Rarity, and Gilda had convinced her that the mine followed a "finders keepers" policy (though in retrospect, she wasn't entirely sure this was true).

They'd considered heading into the mountains, where (according to Celestia) dragons were supposed to roam, but thanks to Tyco making a critical error in plotting their direction, they had ended up much further south than they'd intended, somewhere near Sustria. Since they already had ample maps of the area (and little desire to visit the pigs again), they'd plotted a course for a largely unexplored continent even further to the south.

"…and you're _sure_ it's there?" asked Spitfire as they left Sustria's coast.

"Positive," replied Tyco. "It should be too big to miss."

Sure enough, it wasn't long before they could see a vast expanse of grasslands, dotted sparsely with unfamiliar, highly asymmetrical trees.

"Well, now what?" asked Blast. No one had an answer, so they spread out to cover as much ground as possible, always staying in each other's sight. After just a few minutes of searching, Soarin' alerted the others to something he'd spotted in the distance.

As they drew closer to what appeared to be a large village or a small town, they saw that everything was centered around a large, stone building with a small moat to hold a stream that meandered through the town. Most of the houses, however, took the form of huts that seemed strangely familiar to Rainbow Dash—and once she was able to see the huts' inhabitants, it became clear why.

"Zebras!"

They were all looking up at the Wonderbolts, curious about what business their strange new visitors might have. As they landed, Spitfire began to speak to the striped assembly:

"Greetings to all of you. We are the Wonderbolts of Equestria, and we come in the name of Princess Twilight. We wish to"—

She was interrupted by severely distraught zebra running about. She cried "A dead body!" again and again, and all eyes were quickly on her. The Wonderbolts looked confusedly at one another before following her to the scene of the crime.

The victim's body lay in the floor of his small hut, his legs sprawled awkwardly about. There was no blood and no large wounds, but a small dart protruded from his neck.

"The work of the assassins' guild," muttered one zebra, spreading tangible dread through the room. "Someone he knew must have paid for his death."

"That didn't rhyme," said Rainbow Dash before covering her mouth with her hooves as the zebras looked at her. Embarrassed, she explained: "I have a zebra friend back home, and everything she says rhymes."

"She belongs to the herbalists' guild, then," explained the same zebra, "and you are quite lucky to know someone who can brew potions. As for what has happened here…" he trailed off. As the crowd pulsed with terrified mutters asking questions about the victim, Soarin' motioned his companions to step outside with him.

"We need to be careful," he told them quietly. "We don't want them suspecting us."

"Why would they suspect _us?" _asked Rainbow Dash. "We just got here!"

"Exactly. We're strangers in their village, and so far we've done nothing to earn their trust."

In an instant, words from a zebra Dash had once known came back to her: _In the land where I come from, far, far away, there are certain zebras who act normal by day… by night, however, they sneak off to some unknown place, and consort with wicked creatures of every race._

"I've got it!" she exclaimed. "I've heard of this assassins' guild before, and I know somepony who's hired from them before."

"Really?" asked Tyco, surprised. "Who were they trying to kill?"

"Princess Celestia."

"Oh, right."

Their mission became clear. "Excuse me, everyone," began Rainbow Dash, stepping back into the hut and drawing every zebra's attention, "but I just might have a lead. About two years ago, give or take, a pig named Lord Reginald hired an assassin from the guild. Did any of you see a pony pass through this village around that time?"

After a few seconds, one extravagantly dressed zebra stepped forth and said "I did. He wore a cloak to conceal his identity, but when he came to my home to ask for directions I could tell that he was not one of us. Before then, I had heard of pigs, but never seen one for myself."

"Directions to where?"

"To the assassins' guild. I told him that I didn't know where they could be found, and that I wouldn't help him even if I did. After that, he left—wandered off to another village, though I never knew which one."

"There goes our lead," sighed Blast.

"Something doesn't make sense, though," said Rainbow Dash. "We _know_ for a fact that Reginald succeeded in finding an assassin, which means that asking around and searching eventually led him to the guild."

"They make themselves known to outsiders seeking business with them," explained an elderly pony, "but not to other zebras. That is what makes this killing especially disturbing."

"Wait," said Spitfire, getting an idea. "Rainbow Dash, what was that you said about asking around?"

At first, the question confused her, but then her eyes widened and she said "Of course! If we go to another village and pretend to be in the market for an assassin, then that should lead us straight to the guild, and _then_ we can put a stop to them!"

Suddenly, the zebras were infused with hope. "If your plan works," said one, "then it will mean we no longer have to fear that terrible guild and their dark ways. However, please tread carefully."

The Wonderbolts agree that they would, and then they flew off towards the nearest village, ready to undertake their first great act of justice since they'd gained their freedom from Celestia.

Back in Canterlot, Fluttershy trembled beneath a stone table in a dark room, trying her hardest (and failing) not to think about what Misty might do to her upon finding her.

"Oh, Fluttershy," called out a singsong voice from somewhere, causing her heart to pound so hard she feared it would give away her location. "I'm sure you went _somewhere_ around here, darling. Won't you give me the pleasure of seeing you run for your life?"

Fluttershy closed her eyes and tried to imagine that she was back home in Ponyville, and that Misty was locked away somewhere, and she and her friends were free to live lives of peace away from the pain and the suffering…

_"There_ you are!"

She yelped, and realized with horror that she had just given away her position, for Misty hadn't even been looking in her direction when she'd said that. She scrambled out, making for the door, but Misty's horn lit up and she was wracked with the pain of an electric shock, writhing involuntarily even as she struggled desperately to get away, her legs flailing as the alicorn let out a rich, cruel laugh…

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the pain subsided, turning into a dull throb. In an instant, Fluttershy was on her hooves again, galloping away as quickly as they would let her. Behind her, Misty's taunts reminded her that this would be her life from now on, the fear and the agony would _never end,_ and when her dear friend Twilight returned, Misty would be ready for her, and any remaining shred of hope for Equestria would be snuffed out in an instant…

Down in Sustria, three fillies nervously approached the first of the pigs' towns via the road. Once they had swallowed their fear, they went towards it—first at a canter, and then at a full gallop, refusing to change their minds about what they knew must be done.


	15. Chapter 15: What is Right?

Chapter 15: What is Right?

By now, the corpse in Blizzard's room stank terribly, and he seemed to be gradually losing the ability to sleep. He winced as he heard two sets of hoofsteps approaching, and closed his eyes, wishing desperately for some way to remove himself from his situation…

"I won't need you if I have the others," Misty said to a struggling Fluttershy before shoving her through the doorway. "I'm sure Twilight will still do _anything_ to save them, so why bother keeping you?" Then she looked once at Blizzard with a knowing smile before closing the door.

Fluttershy trembled as she looked at the haggard pegasus, but to her (and his) surprise, he made no move to attack her. Confused, he looked down at his cutie mark—it was still there, and still a skull, but it might as well have been a tattoo for all the effect it was having on him.

Intense relief washed over him. "The cutie mark magic… it's _gone._" Fluttershy, whom Misty had led to believe was about to die, breathed easy .

"Does this mean Misty's going to stop being evil?" she asked

Blizzard's expression turned bitter, and he shook his head. "Hers is an evil that goes much deeper than her cutie mark. I can guarantee you it won't stop until _she_ stops breathing."

Fluttershy sighed with detached disappointment. "I used to think there was at least a little bit of good in _every_pony."

"You learn something new every day, huh?"

An uncomfortable silence passed. Then, Blizzard said "I'm not much better, though. There were so many times that I could have stopped this… but didn't. If I had just stood up to Misty to begin with, none of this would have happened… and _she_ would still be alive." He pointed towards the corner.

As Fluttershy turned around and realized where the smell was coming from, she felt instantly sick to her stomach. The only response she could muster was to squeak "oh, my" before fainting.

Over a hundred miles to the south, five Wonderbolts had made their way into the zebra village of Shakala, and were now wandering through the back roads, trying to look as shifty and suspicious as they could.

"Everyone keeps giving us weird looks," whispered Soarin' to the others. "Maybe we should be more careful."

"It's probably because they know we're looking for the guild," replied Spitfire. "We need to stay convincing if we're going to find what we're looking for."

It was about then that Rainbow Dash noticed a zebra she was sure would be their guide to the guild. She was staring at them like the others, but also slowly following them from a distance. Rainbow pretended not to notice her at first, meandering about with the others for several minutes before turning around suddenly and catching the zebra off-guard with a challenging stare.

Since there were no other zebras near enough to see them, this one hesitated little before approaching the Wonderbolts.

"You seem a little lost," she observed with a slight smile. "Is there something in particular you are looking for?"

Blast shrugged. "Nothing in particular."

"Then perhaps I can show you the hospitality of my people. Please, come with me."

She led them to a large hut partway inside a jungle at the edge of the village, so out of the way that it was conspicuously inconspicuous. As they stepped inside, the Wonderbolts all felt a twinge of alarm at the sight of the eight cloaked zebras waiting to meet them inside.

"What an honor it is to have guests come from so far, just to visit our humble village," said one in a smooth, oily voice. "Can we get you anything? We have soup cooking in the kitchen."

The soup turned out to be not unpleasant, though it didn't taste like anything they could easily recognize. "If you aren't aware," explained the same zebra as the others watched silently and expressionlessly, "we zebras do not have shopping establishments like ponies do—instead, work is done by various guilds, and transactions are casual matters. There is the herbalists' guild, the carpenters' guild, the farmers' guild…"

-"What about the assassins' guild?" interrupted Rainbow Dash.

The zebra raised an eyebrow. "We do get _such_ unwanted attention regarding them… travelers come here under false pretenses, seeking to end the life of a dire enemy in some far-off land. It's abominable, really."

"I guess so," shrugged Soarin', "though I imagine _sometimes_ there might be justification for assassinating someone."

For a moment, the zebra's expression flickered with satisfaction. "Perhaps so."

"For example, a prince in my homeland of Equestria is a known embezzler, but is so well-connected as to be immune from punishment…"

The zebra continued his train of thought: "…and if were to suffer an _accident, _it would be to everyone's benefit…"

Rainbow Dash decided that the time for subtlety was over. "How much?"

At once, the zebras shuffled around, nearly surrounding the Wonderbolts. "You ponies trade in bits, no?" asked the zebra who had led them to the hut.

"That's right."

"I have handled royalty before. For an Equestrian prince, I shall take no less than five thousand bits."

The Wonderbolts all looked at each other. "I think that can be arranged," said Spitfire.

"Excellent. In that case, please come with us."

As they went out of the hut and deeper into the jungle, the zebras continued to surround them, taking measured, deliberate steps as they led their guests down a winding path that seemed to double back on itself countless times before they stopped in front of a large tree. The zebra in front turned around and gave the trunk seven soft kicks. There was a grinding sound as a hole opened at the tree's base.

They stepped down into a cobblestone stairway lit by torchlight, which opened into a large stone chamber lines with tables, maps, and bubbling cauldrons. On the walls were hung countless weapons: knives, crossbows, blow-darts, throwing stars, and other objects that were stranger still.

"We like to give our work a personal touch," explained the zebra who had made the offer. "As our clients, you get to decide how the target dies: how much he suffers, how long it takes, what you want done with the body, that sort of thing.

"I'm not sure," said Spitfire, as though she were deciding on a new carpet. "What do you think, Soarin'?"

"Soarin'?" asked the prospective assassin. The zebras stiffened. "Soarin' of the Wonderbolts?"

When the ponies hesitated, the zebras had their answer. "Celestia's secret agents," spat a particularly lanky assassin, "working the same trade as we do. Let me guess: you're here to put a stop to us."

"No," said Rainbow Dash, shaking her head vigorously, "we"—

-"You what? You thought you'd fly all the way here to hire us for something you could just as easily do yourselves?"

One zebra stopped her hoof, which signaled the rest to grab weapons from the walls. The Wonderbolts were trained fighters too, though, and they set about kicking and ramming the nearest opponents they could reach, quickly creating a deadly frenzy of swishing blades and hooves. One moment Rainbow Dash found herself with a blade to her throat and the next it had been knocked away and she was in the air, grazing the ceiling as she sought out a target.

Though the Wonderbolts were somewhat hesitant to take lives, (for they'd had enough of that under Celestia) their superior combat prowess allowed them to wear down the zebras to the point where two of them fled. Seeing this, the others began to follow—the Wonderbolts chased after them, but one turned and threw a knife they hadn't seen him carrying.

At once, they all tried to scramble out of the way, but as they bumped into each other, the knife struck Soarin's wing, leaving a deep gash. As she saw the others hesitate, he urged through gritted teeth: "Keep going! Don't let them get away!"

As they exited the tree, the assassins had been worn and scattered to the point where they didn't stand a chance against the Wonderbolts. The pegasi knocked the zebras' weapons from their mouths, deftly corralling their enemies into one place.

Several minutes later, every zebra from the assassins' guild had been tied up with their own rope, and Tyco had gone to alert the villagers. Rainbow Dash studied the impassive faces before her, remembering well the night she had seen one of them take his own life.

"Why do you do it?" she asked them suddenly. "Why do you kill people for a _living?"_

"It's better than letting those who come to us try to kill by themselves," replied one of them. "With us, it's cleaner, neater, safer. Someone has to do it."

She glanced over at Soarin', who was wincing as Spitfire bandaged his wing, and then back at the zebra. "But _why? _Why should murder just _have_ to happen?"

"Why shouldn't it? Do you think anyone who comes to us is any less sure they are right than you are right now? Do you really expect them not to make excuses, justifications, rationalizations that, somehow or another, their target _deserves_ to die? When almost everyone in the world does what they _think _is right, there's no one left to decide who's really right or wrong."

She racked her brain for a rebuttal, but was beginning to sense that she was in over her head until she remembered something the elephant elder had told her. "Well, you shouldn't help people do selfish things, because the self is an illusion, and—and"—she fumbled. "…and everyone's a part of the same universe, and it's all connected."

The zebra raised an eyebrow at her, and she knew that he knew that she didn't know what she was talking about. Everyone was silent until the villagers arrived to cart the assassins off to whatever fate awaited them. (Rainbow Dash would never find out.)

The Wonderbolts spent the rest of the day in the village, with Blizzard under the care of three healers. As the assassins' fate was being decided, a group of zebras from the herbalists' guild came to visit the Wonderbolts in the where they were staying.

"You've done well to rid our people of such a terrible curse," said the foremost herbalist after setting down a small parcel, "and therefore, we think this reward should be yours."

"Which of us is it for?" asked Blast. The zebra shrugged. Spitfire stepped forward and opened the parcel, revealing an irregularly shaped blob of some squishy, dark-colored substance.

"There is no need to be struck so dumb," said another herbalist after a short silence. "What you see before you is an unusual gum."

"Gum?" repeated Rainbow Dash, hiding her disgust poorly. "It hasn't already been chewed, has it?" (This earned her a sharp kick from Spitfire.)

"Not at all," replied the herbalist with a slight smile. "This is freshly cooked. Try chewing some, and see how you look."

Rainbow Dash complied, pulling off a small wad and chewing it. She was surprised by its rich, intoxicating flavor—which reminded her vaguely of coconuts—but one thing confused her.

"Whath do you mearn, how I lookth?" she asked, without bothering to secret the gum in the corner of her mouth. Suddenly, everyone gasped.

She started to panic: "Whath? Whath?" One the zebras dragged a large mirror into the hut, propping it against the wall, and she ran to it to see…

"Tyco?"

Only, she hadn't turned into Tyco, because his reflection was too far back; she was only seeing him in the mirror because he was standing behind her. But where was _she?_ She moved her face all around, trying to get it in front of the mirror, but she thought she _was_ in front of it, and then she realized what had happened:

"I'm invisible!"

She became disoriented as she looked down towards her hooves (or where her hooves _should_ have been) and saw nothing but the floor. Instinctively, she looked behind her at her tail as well, but though she swished it side to side as hard as she could, there was no sign of its presence other than the air running through it.

"How long does it last?" asked Soarin'.

The herbalist with the mirror replied: "The gum should be able to effect its power for between forty-five minutes and an hour."

Rainbow Dash thought to herself that this would be a perfect gift for Pinkie. She thanked the zebras for it, and then the four Wonderbolts went to visit Soarin'.

"It hurts to walk, huh?" asked Spitfire sympathetically when she saw him lying in a cot.

"Not really, but the healers won't let me get up. They say I need to rest as much as possible."

"Did they say how long it'll take to heal?" asked Blast.

Soarin' suddenly grew sheepish. "Well… about a week, they said."

"A _week?" _gasped Rainbow Dash. "What kind of healers _are_ they?"

He shrugged, immediately regretting it as a surge of pain shout through him. "I guess there are some things that only unicorn magic can do."

An idea popped into Rainbow's head. "Well, maybe I should see about bringing a unicorn here… I mean, I'm sure Twilight would be willing to help."

"I really don't want to slow you guys down…"

"It would speed us up!" Spitfire pointed out. "All we need to do is make a trip to Equestria, and then the princess can teleport us back here."

"Wouldn't it be faster if Rainbow went by herself?" asked Tyco. "She could use her sonic rainboom to get there as soon as possible."

Her ears perked up. "Hey, I could, couldn't I?"

Her teammates wished her luck, and she was off. As she left the zebras' realm, however, she didn't start building up speed immediately, because something was still troubling her.

_I didn't have an answer to what that assassin was saying, _she thought. _What if there really _isn't _such a thing as right or wrong?_

She realized that Celestia had thought she was doing the right thing, too, and that Twilight had even joined her for a time. Were she and the other Wonderbolts just paving the way for pony imperialism? In the grand scheme of things, wasn't Twilight just forcing her own ideas about justice onto her nation, like any ruler?

_If almost everyone does what they think is right, then who has the right to say who's right?_


	16. Chapter 16: Impending Justice

Chapter 16: Impending Justice

Ditzy Doo dived down towards the mountains below in alarm as she heard what sounded like a far-off roar. Earlier, she'd flown past a strange city filled with giant grey beasts, and the last thing she wanted to do was become a meal for something even bigger. Nevertheless, she swallowed her fear and took off again, staying closer to the ground to avoid being spotted.

After an hour or so, she found herself inside a massive cave at the bottom of a deep ravine; it occurred to her that this probably wasn't where she was supposed to be, but at least it was somewhere new. She froze as the sound of titanic footsteps echoed off the walls. Before she could collect herself enough to react to what was happening, a great red dragon was peering down at her, its head alone so large that she could have fit comfortably inside of his mouth—or comfortably in one sense, at least.

"Hi, there," she said in a terrified squeak. "My name is Ditzy Doo, and"—

-"Why have you come to my cave, pony?" His voice rumbled and echoed so much that she was certain she'd be hearing those same words for several minutes.

"My homeland is in trouble," she explained, her voice growing louder as she began to remember, "and there's no one to turn to. You see, there's this evil—uh, what are those ponies with horns and wings called again?"

The dragon raised an eyebrow, wondering if she could possibly be serious. "Unicorns and pegasi?" he guessed slowly.

"No, I mean… alicorns, that was it!"

The word sounded familiar. He thought back through the centuries, trying to determine where he'd heard it before, and as he realized what she'd meant about the appendages she'd named, he realized the terrible truth.

"One of the old ones," he breathed in the loudest whisper she'd ever heard. "It is fortunate that you should tell me of this, young one." He stood up tall, his head nearly grazing the lofty ceiling of his cave. "Fly up onto my back," he instructed. "We shall meet with the others."

As she watched the landscape below whisk past from atop the dragon's back, the terror she'd felt since seeing him began to give way to elation: this, she was certain now, was what she was supposed to be doing.

Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, had just executed the fourth sonic rainboom in a row, and was pleased to find herself over a mountain that she knew wasn't far from Ponyville. As she neared the town, however, she could tell that something was wrong.

_What would they need that wall for? _She thought back, and remembered that Twilight had mentioned something about removing the enchantments that kept monsters inside the Everfree Forest. She dove down towards Sugarcube Corner, deciding now was as good a time as any to give her friends their gifts.

The door was answered by a dazed-looking Mrs. Cake. "Is Pinkie Pie available?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Mrs. Cake bit her lip for a moment, and then looked away with a fearful and confused expression. "I'm afraid not," she said quietly. "I haven't seen her in some time."

Rainbow's stomach sank, and her mind began to race, trying to determine what possibly could have happened. "What's wrong?" she asked. "What's going on?"

Mrs. Cake leaned in close, and Rainbow Dash leaned back, realizing she hadn't brushed her teeth in some time. "It's Misty," she whispered. "She's an alicorn now, and she's been murdering and torturing ponies all over town." Suddenly, Mrs. Cake turned around and flung herself to the ground, sobbing into her hooves.

_"What? _Where's Twilight in all this?_"_

"I—I don't know, but I heard—that—she was somewhere in the castle…" Mrs. Cake tried in vain to wipe her face—"nopony's been able to find her, though…"

"It's okay, I'll go and try to figure out what's going on, sort things out—don't you worry!"

"Please—be careful…"

Rainbow Dash flew towards the Wonderbolt wing of the castle as quickly as she could, flung the door open and flew up to the second floor. She realized that this was one of the places she would most likely find Misty, but she was too worried for her friends to care—and besides, she was sure Blizzard would be able to tell her what had gone wrong.

"Hello?" she called as she walked through the hallways on the second floor. "Anypony home?"

She froze and whipped her head around as she heard muffled voices coming from somewhere. As she ran towards them, she confirmed that the sounds were coming from Blizzard's room, which turned out to be locked.

"Who's in there?"

"Rainbow Dash!" said Blizzard and Fluttershy's voices in unison.

She cocked her head to the side, confused. "Fluttershy? What are _you_ doing in there?"

"Misty locked us in!" explained Blizzard. "Please, get us out as fast as you can!"

She looked down at the doorknob. "I don't see any lock on the outside."

"Well, she must have done it with magic, then!"

"Then what should I do?"

"Our friends are locked in the dungeon," explained Fluttershy, "and Misty's been doing all kinds of horrible things to then. Go down there and let them out, and _don't get caught_, and then go and find Luna, because she's the only one who can reach Twilight!"

"I won't let you down!" Rainbow Dash turned, about to run down the stairs, before deciding it would be faster to crash through a nearby window. After a moment of tumbling through the air, she was shooting towards the dungeon as fast as the air resistance would allow, nearly achieving an accidental rainboom until she skidded to a stop outside an entrance to the castle, nearly slamming into the doors.

She flew down one corridor after another, her head pounding as she wondered what condition her friends might be in. As she descended, the rooms grew darker, the air grew staler, and then she reached the final hallway, speeding up and careening into the dungeons.

Sure enough, she was greeted by the sounds of familiar voices hopefully shouting her name. Relief washed over her as she counted three of her friends, all still alive (though certainly not well).

"Rarity," she said with authority, "can you find a weak spot in the bars, like you did last time?"

The unicorn shook her head. "I've tried, and they're all too strong to break. You'll have to find another way."

Rainbow thought frantically, but she had no idea where the key to the cell was, or if there _was_ a key—it might have been locked with magic.

"I don't know…" she said. "What should I do?"

"If you can't get us out of here," said Pinkie Pie, "then maybe Luna can!"

She thought of the trip to Sustria, and what might happen to her friends in the intervening time, given their emaciated states. If she was too slow, she realized with a jolt, then she might not see them alive again.

"Just let me give you some things first, alright?"

"No!" urged Applejack. "Ya' can't risk getting' caught!"

"This'll just take a second." She took off her saddlebags, set them down, and pulled out five sparkling, perfectly-shaped diamonds.

"These are for you, Rarity." She passed them through the bars.

"Oh, they're _beautiful, _Rainbow, but you really shouldn't"—

-"and I got these seeds for you, Applejack. They'll grow into trees with all kinds of exotic fruit that you can't find in Equestria."

"That's _real_ kind of ya', but"—

-"and Pinkie, this is a very special type of gum I got from the zebras. If you chew just a tiny piece of it, you'll turn invisible for an hour."

"Thanks, Dashie," she said, and chuckled nervously: "Y'know, this would be great for playing a prank on Twilight, or Spike, or…" As she trailed off, her eyes widened.

"…or Misty!"

Meanwhile in Sustria, the cutie mark crusaders had managed to convince a pair of pig guards that they knew Princess Luna, who apparently had achieved some sort of influence over Sustria. Presently, the three fillies were riding in a pig-drawn carriage.

"How much farther 'till we get to the Princess?" asked Applebloom. "It's kind of an emergency."

"It shouldn't be long, my dear ponies," one of the pigs obsequiously assured her. "Truffledorf is just up this road—we should see it quite soon."

Scootaloo leaned over to Applebloom and whispered "I thought pigs didn't like ponies."

"Me, too, but I guess that don't hold true for all of 'em."

Just as the pig had promised, they soon found themselves in Truffledorf, where they immediately noticed something strange: whenever any pigs saw them, they would hastily bow, as if to royalty. As soon as they were led inside the castle, they were greeted by yet another bizarre sight.

There, on the throne, sat Princess Luna, flanked by pig attendants. As the crusaders approached her, she gasped.

"My little ponies! What are you doing here?"

They bowed. "Princess," began Scootaloo, "we need you back in Equestria."

"Well, the pigs need me, too. Before I came along, they treated their fellow living being like dirt, ruling over them with an iron hoof."

They looked around; the walls held tapestries bearing a crescent moon, identical to Luna's cutie mark.

"So are you, like, princess of Sustria now?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Basically, yes. The pigs proved themselves incapable of ruling justly, so I took it upon myself to save them from their tyrannical ways."

"So… yer forcin' them to be free?"

"Precisely. Now…" she turned to one of her attendants. "Go and fetch these fillies something to eat. I'm sure they must be starving after such a long journey." As he hurried away, she turned back to the crusaders and said "Anyway, I unfortunately cannot return to Equestria at this time—there's still too much reform that needs to be accomplished."

"Now wait," said Scootaloo with an audacity that surprised even her, "it sounds to me like you're just doing the same thing to them that they were doing to sheep and goats and cows!"

Luna was shocked, but replied with a warm smile: "Actually, you see, it's not the same at all. When I came here, I saw the pigs exhibit an intensely warlike nature"—

-"So you just sat them down and had a polite discussion with them until they decided to change their ways and elect you as their ruler, huh?"

She opened her mouth to give a condescending reply before remembering that she had, in fact, done the exact opposite. A strained silence followed.

"Look," said Applebloom, "whatever's goin' on here, you _have_ to come back to Equestria right away! Lives are dependin' on it!"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, 'cause there's this evil alicorn called Misty who's terrorizin' everypony, and we know for a fact she even _killed_ some of 'em, and Twilight is stuck underground or somethin' so we _need_ you to get her out!"

"I'm… not sure I understood all of that, but this _does_ sound serious." She turned to her remaining attendant. "Let it be known that I am away on important business, and that I will return when it is taken care of."

As she teleported away, little ponies in tow, an attendant returned with three bowls of salad, only to be baffled by the princess's absence.

In the time that Twilight had spent under the earth, her sense of time had given way to a strange rhythmic yet meaningless flow, an inexplicable feeling that all lengths of time were identical in nature and interchangeable, predestination absolute and all causality since the beginning of time as clear and concrete as the matter it acted upon. Since about a week or two into her trance, she had begun a uniform path towards a singular destination—one which arrived as she heard a voice frantically calling her name.

"Princess Luna," she said calmly, opening her eyes. "Is it time for us to change places?"

"Yes, and hurry! There's urgent business for you to attend to!"

This time, her calm was disrupted. "What do you mean?"

"Misty of the Wonderbolts wasn't who we thought she was. It seems she found a way to use Celestia's sacrifice circle to make herself into an alicorn—and a very powerful one, at that."

_"What?"_

"I _know,_ it's terrible! That's why we have to hurry!"

They both concentrated hard, and Twilight transferred the enchantments to Luna without breaking them. Much to her relief, the weaker alicorn was able to bear the magic's immense weight, and the stronger flew off in search of her usurper.


	17. Chapter 17: Good and Evil

Chapter 17: Good and Evil

Misty smirked as she wondered how she hadn't thought of this sooner. As the fire spread across the house she'd chosen, its unfortunate owners began screaming from within.

_The best part,_ she thought,_ will be when the fire has spread across most of town, and they all try to run away. I wonder if they'll forget about the wall in their panic and run right into it?_

Her anticipation was interrupted when the fire spontaneously went out, leaving the house's walls partially charred but mostly intact. She tried to start another one, but to her vexation, it was snuffed out, as well. As she looked around for some explanation, her blood went cold.

There, flying behind her, was Twilight.

"Princess!" gasped Misty. "I"—

-"So it's true… You really _did_ sacrifice unicorns to yourself. I never figured you for a monster, Misty."

She cocked her head. "Hmm… I guess I kinda sorta _did_ do that, didn't I?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Don't you dare play games with me.:

"Oh, I'll do much more than that. You see, I left your friends locked up and on the brink of starvation and dehydration, so they don't have much time left. They're quite likely to die if you waste time fighting me, so perhaps it would be in both our best interests if we were to attend to them first?"

Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing, nor the wicked grin on the alicorn's face. "Alright," she muttered, seething with unfathomable rage. "Let's go."

As they teleported into the dungeons, Misty dashed ahead, thinking to put Twilight's friends at hornpoint until the princess complied with her demands. She stumbled somewhat, however, as she noticed that their cell was empty.

"_Well?_ Where are my friends?"

Instinctively, Misty flung open the cell door and looked around inside—but, other than a few piles of rags too small for anypony to hide under, the cell was empty. She slowly turned around, trying desperately to maintain her composure.

"How silly of me! I moved them and forgot"—

-"You mean they escaped?"

"No, I mean"—

Misty sensed that Twilight might attack her at any moment, so she teleported to the surface as quickly as she could. As she began to fly away from Ponyville, however, Twilight appeared in front of her.

"Do you have anything to say about the murders you've committed? Anything at all?"

Misty was livid—how could things have fallen apart like this? As she thought about it, though, she realized that she _had_ sacrificed an awful lot of unicorns—hundreds, even. _Maybe I still have a chance._

She shot a burst of blue flame towards Twilight, who appeared next to her, unharmed. Misty conjured a shield, pushing a surprised Twilight backwards before flying in circles around her. She dodged several lightning bolts from the purple alicorn before diving downward, realizing that Twilight might hold back if she was afraid of inflicting collateral damage on Ponyville. She weaved between the houses, preparing to launch a surprise attack, but suddenly found herself back up in the sky, hundreds of feet off the ground. As she deflected a magical bolt, she realized she'd been teleported. _So much for that idea._

She tried flinging several bolts of fire that curved along different paths, flying towards Twilight from all sides, but all bounced harmlessly off her shield. As she advanced, Misty slowly backed away, though she knew that fleeing would be useless.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling in the sky, and both ponies stopped midair to gaze upwards. Dark, colossal storm clouds had appeared seemingly from nowhere, and the alicorns were met by a gentle drizzle of rain which rapidly intensified.

_Perfect,_ thought Misty as she drew a swath of clouds towards herself. Though she was relatively inexperienced with magic, she'd had the power to control the weather her entire life, so the clouds provided her with a distinct advantage. As she rushed towards Twilight, immersed in her disguise, she was determined to be the one to emerge from this confrontation alive.

Down below, Twilight's friends had managed to stagger up into upper Canterlot, and were now gorging themselves on various delights from the castle's unattended kitchen. Deep rumblings echoed down from the surface, but for the moment, they didn't care. As they tore recklessly through soups and salads, bowls and plates fell to the floor, shattering. It was necessary to slow down as their stomachs, weak from disuse, struggled to digest the meal, but in the end they managed it.

As they lay stuffed and immobile upon the floor, they were startled by the sound of hoofsteps.

"Who do y'all think that is?" whispered Applejack sharply.

"I hope it's somepony friendly," replied Pinkie Pie, "because I can't move." She spoke for all of them.

"Whoa, are you guys okay?" It was Rainbow Dash.

"We're fine," replied Rarity, "except that this is the first time we've eaten well in quite r

"Oh. Well, when you guys finish eating your strength back, you might wanna come outside. I think Twilight and Misty might be fighting up in the sky."

"You 'think' they 'might' be?"

"Well, either that or it's the fiercest storm Equestria's ever seen… or I guess it could be both. Come and see."

The ponies struggled to their hooves and followed Rainbow Dash back outside the castle. Their jaws all dropped as they gazed upward, for the sky seemed to have been torn asunder by a vast, fiery, swirling gash that periodically shot down bolts of lightning. At first, it seemed to be an enormous cloud front struck by the sunlight at a scintillating angle, but closer inspection revealed that fire (or something like it) was being generated somewhere inside the clouds.

"Who's makin' that wind?" asked Applejack, looking around.

"I don't think anyone is," said Rainbow Dash. "The enchantment that kept the weather under control must have run out." As a fierce gale picked up, accompanied soon by a drizzle, and then a fierce torrent of rain, they were tempted to take shelter back inside the castle, yet compelled to watch the spectacle before them.

All across Ponyville, the townsponies had also emerged to watch the battle that would decide their fate. They had faith in their princess, but the growing darkness above terrified them nonetheless.

As Misty dodged and blocked one barrage after another, tugging on the clouds as hard as she could, she realized that they were gradually gaining altitude. _Twilight's trying to keep Ponyville safe, _she realized. The clouds were making it difficult to stay oriented, so she dived out of them, leaving an expanding trail of mist as she went in order to hide herself. As fire and rain met, there was an almost omnipresent sizzle throughout the clouds for her to draw from.

There was a deafening rumble as two fireballs collided somewhere deep inside the storm front, causing the entire thing to shake uncontrollably. As it expanded, it became impossible to put a familiar name to the weather conditions; it looked as though the end the world had appeared from the heavens as a crimson scar across the sky, and was waiting for the right moment to strike the earth.

Misty realized she had virtually no chance of hitting a target as small as Twilight in such a meteorological quagmire, so she ceased fire and started teleporting around, attempting to discern the source of the attacks directed at her. _There's no doubt she's strong, but maybe I can outsmart her._

After a minute or so, however, Misty realized that Twilight must have been teleporting around, too, because there were fireballs and flashes of lightning originating from every corner of the storm front. It occurred to her that if Twilight didn't know where she was, then she might not notice her absence.

She teleported back down, about twenty feet off the ground, and began to fly away, keeping close to the hills—however, she'd hardly traveled a hundred yards before the princess appeared right in front of her.

"How…?"

"I can sense your magic, Misty. Whether you try to fly away or teleport, I can follow you, so don't bother."

Misty felt herself being drawn away—somewhere far away, farther than she would have dared to teleport on her own. She sensed some kind of terrible emptiness closing in on her for a moment before Twilight conjured a protective bubble around both of them.

"Three guesses where we are right now."

Misty couldn't help but shiver as she looked out across the barren white landscape before her. Up in the sky was a great blue and green orb which could only be the Earth. Droplets of water fell unnaturally slowly from her drenched coat and mane.

"Misty, I'm going to go back now. I'll leave you here for as long as I see fit based on your crimes, which I suspect will mean a life sentence."

Twilight turned her back, preparing to teleport away. She didn't seem to have noticed, but Misty had been preparing an attack since she'd touched down on the moon. She grinned as an intense beam shot towards the alicorn…

At the last moment, however, Twilight appeared above Misty, kicking her in the head, forcing the beam downwards.

Down on Earth, Pinkie Pie excitedly tugged on Applejack's shoulder, pointing to another part of the sky, away from the stormy inferno they'd all been fixated on.

"Yes, Pinkie," sighed Rarity, "we can see that the moon is out during the daytime!"

"That's not what I mean!" she shouted over the buffeting winds and the violent rains. "Look closely!"

A red light was burst forth from somewhere near the moon—no, from the moon _itself,_ as the entire thing cracked open like an egg and let out a fierce, shimmering burst that lingered even after the moon had shattered into millions of pieces. They gazed on in silent awe, afraid to wonder what this might mean.

As the two alicorns resumed their battle, now back inside the storm front, Misty realized that Twilight should have been able to kill her by now—the intensity of her spells was gradually increasing, and she seemed to possess a limitless pool of magical energy. _So why aren't I dead? _At first she thought she was being shown mercy, but if that was so, then why was she being attacked at all?

Suddenly, it came to her: _Her magic may be infinite, but her concentration isn't. She can only cast so many spells at once, and as long as I stay hidden in the clouds, I have enough time to evade all of them, no matter how strong they are._

As she tried to think of some way to use this to her advantage, she was interrupted by a sonorous roar from somewhere outside the clouds. She flew up and stood on top of the storm front, where she saw a great golden dragon cresting it and closing in on her. Not wanting any distractions, she began firing bolts of fire at him. He managed to swerve around the first three, but a fourth struck him in the face, eliciting an anguished bellow. Before he could get his bearings, she sent a powerful surge of lightning through him, causing him to fall through the clouds and to his death thousands of feet below.

Meanwhile, Blizzard and Fluttershy stood riveted in the center of his room, listening to the sounds from outside (for there were no windows to look through).

"Are those… _dragons?"_

"Whatever they are, they sound awfully close."

These words turned out to be prophetic, for with a deafening rush of wind that stood out against the storm, something huge rushed past the tower, smashing the wall open without warning. The two pegasi coughed as dust billowed through the room, but thankfully, neither one was struck by the debris.

Blizzard rushed to the newly created precipice, ignoring the rain, and took in the chaos before him: a clan of dragons was flying towards what appeared to be a fiery crack that rent the entire sky in twain.

"I think Misty must be up there, fighting with someone…"

"Twilight, maybe?" suggested Fluttershy hopefully.

"I'm not sure who else could stand up to her so spectacularly… so yes, probably."

He was so transfixed by the sight that he nearly jumped when he noticed a grey pegasus flying towards him from about thirty feet away.

He gave her some room to crash-land, after which she hopped to her hooves, shook herself off (making Fluttershy squeak as the droplets landed on her), and smiled in a direction that was only a few degrees off from Fluttershy.

"I did it!" she squealed with joy. "I was supposed to go and get help, and I _did!"_

Fluttershy was about to point out that she was supposed to have gotten Luna, but decided against it. "You did great, Ditzy."

Blizzard's attention was suddenly not on them, nor even on the otherworldly spectacle in the sky, but on the realization that he was free for the first time in many days. He jumped out of the tower, not yet sure where he would go, and immediately regretted it—his wings had gotten stiff from disuse and he fell clumsily for several terrifying yards before he could take control of his descent. He ended up setting hoof in the castle gardens, and the moment he did, he realized the best place where he could possibly be.

His veins were afire with anticipation as he flew through those familiar corridors, towards that horrible nucleus of death and cruelty…

As he did, Misty felt herself being teleported to a clear patch of sky above the forest, to a lush garden somewhere near the castle, to all kinds of places, many of which she didn't recognize. _Twilight is trying to disorient me_, she realized, and so she fought as hard as she could to maintain her location, but found it beyond her. With some effort, however, she could appear a few feet to the left, or to the right of where Twilight was trying to put her, and she resolved to use this to her advantage in some way or another.

Suddenly they stopped, face to face in a long, empty hallway. "You can't win," Twilight informed her. "Your magic is too weak, and even if it wasn't, you have no idea how to use it."

_We'll see about that,_ thought Misty, but she said nothing.

"I can only think of one way to end this safely," Twilight continued, "and I'll admit it's not very noble… still, it's the best solution I can think of."

Misty felt herself being dragged away, and knew exactly where she was going, and exactly what she had to do. She clenched her teeth as she summoned one last surge of magic, determined to make it count…

…Blizzard rocketed down the long set of stairs, knowing what had to be done, and convinced that Misty would have to show up there sooner or later_. It's the only way she can hope to win. She'll pull something underhanded, catch Twilight off-guard, and then…_

…Twilight and Misty appeared in the center of a dimly lit, circular room that held a special significance for both of them.

"Any last words?" asked Twilight in a low whisper.

"Just two: _look down."_

Twilight did, and realized with a horrible sinking feeling that _she_ was the one standing on the magnetic plate. Instantly terrified, she slowly looked back up at Misty, at those awful eyes which glistened with an unspeakable degree of sadistic pleasure. She licked her lips, and then she lowered her horn…

…and then Blizzard reached his destination, registered the sight of the two alicorns—_both still alive,_ he thought—and dived at the one who had caused him so much pain, turned him into a monster, stolen his very soul…

Fixated as she was on the prize before her, Misty heard nothing of the approaching rush of wind behind her until it was too late and Blizzard was upon her, bowling her over and shattering her concentration. The magic pinning Twilight to the plate was momentarily lifted, and she seized the opportunity, separating herself from it with a single leap and a flap of her wings, dragging a flailing Misty over to take her place…

…and then it was done. Misty stood pinned to the plate, unable to cast a single spell as Twilight stared her down with cold fury and as Blizzard struggled to his hooves, panting, exhausted by the exertion of his flight. Twilight acted before anyone or anything could stop her, and in a quick flash of light and blood, accompanied by a loud _snap,_ Misty was knocked to the ground.

Blizzard stared at her, numb with the shock of what had just happened and everything leading up to it. A prickling surge of terror ran through him as Misty weakly scrabbled her hooves across the ground, pushing herself up with tremendous effort, and then trying to wipe the water and the blood from her face.

Twilight turned to Blizzard. "I'd like to go and find my friends. I'd like you to help me search."

He blinked a few times before snapping back to reality with a "Yes, princess." In an instant, the three of them were back on the surface, on a grassy ridge near the castle, the weather still threateningly turbulent above them.

_If they're outside, this storm won't do them any good._ Twilight reached deep into her inner well magic, dispersing the storm and melting the clouds away in a burst of brilliant blue light that rippled across the entire sky. In less than a minute, the overwhelmingly gloomy palette of deepest black and crimson had turned to a bright, clear blue—the sun was shining, lighting up the dewdrops on the grass, and Blizzard thought he saw a double rainbow.

Meanwhile, Misty was flying away as quickly as she could, surprised that her wings were still working. _She forgot to kill me,_ she thought with disbelieving elation. _I'm going to get away._ However, there were three things that Mist didn't know.

The first of these was that Twilight hadn't been planning to kill her at all, and the second was that she was flying high enough to attract the notice of the clan of dragons from the far north.

They closed in on her, recognizing the pony they had seen murdering one of their kind. As they surrounded her, she laughed. "Dragons are nothing to me! Do you really think I should be afraid of creatures as weak as you?" She pointed her horn at them, preparing to slay them all, at which point she realized the third thing she hadn't known.

Twilight had broken her horn.

Immediately, she dived downwards, thinking to pick up as much speed as possible as quickly as possible and find somewhere, _anywhere_, that the dragons might not be able to reach her, but this plan was cut short at once as a black dragon snatched her out of the air, diving down faster than she'd been doing. After he had landed, followed shortly by his fellows, he shoved the writhing, screaming pony into his mouth and bit down, tearing through flesh and snapping bones until her frantic, terrified, agonized brain ceased to function and she disappeared down the dragon's gullet, where she would not be missed.

He let out a single triumphant roar before returning to the skies, and led the others home. Their work in this land was finished.


	18. Chapter 18: Tyranny's End

Chapter 18: Tyranny's End

As relief washed over Twilight at the sight of her friends gathered just outside the gates of Canterlot, so, too, did a deep sense of exhaustion—for though she still had plenty of magic to spare, her battle against Misty had been physically taxing, and the hunger and tiredness she'd subconsciously staved off now came to meet her in full force.

As a consequence, once she had teleported over to them, she stumbled while walking towards them and they all collapsed in a heap, laughing.

"So, tell us," said Rarity, disentangling herself from her friends, "what happened to Misty?"

Twilight looked behind her. "She was eaten by one of those dragons," she said softly.

"And you're _sure _about this?"

"Yes. Positive."

They all breathed a sigh of relief except for Twilight, who couldn't help being disturbed by what she'd seen.

Over the next few days, the ponies whom Misty had locked in the dungeon recovered their strength, and everypony was immensely pleased to see Rainbow Dash when she returned from Sustria and visited them in the castle infirmary.

"I wish I'd been here to help when Misty was taking over," she sighed once they'd told her what had happened.

"It was probably for the best that you weren't," Rarity assured her. "Misty was far too strong to be stopped by any of us… except Twilight, of course."

"Oh! That reminds me…" she reached into her saddlebag, pulled out a package, and said "Twilight, I want you to have this." As Twilight unwrapped it, she continued: "It's a device that measures things our senses can't detect, and from what I understand, it behaves kind of similarly to Pinkie's Pinkie sense."

Twilight's eyes widened as she inspected the device. "Where did you _get_ this?" She set it down carefully and magically manipulated its needles, observing the rotations of the many dials at the bottom. "This thing is _decades_ beyond the most advanced pony technology!"

"I thought you might like it," said Rainbow with a satisfied smile. She turned to Fluttershy. "Sorry, but I didn't have time to get you anything… Soarin' hurt his wing when we were in a zebra village, and so I was in a hurry to"—

-"He did? Is he okay? I'd hate to think he suffered because you were busy with us…"

Rainbow Dash laughed. "It's fine—the zebras are taking good care of him. Besides, I think it's safe to say you guys needed my help a whole lot worse than he did."

There was no longer any need for them to stay in the infirmary, so they ended up walking around the castle. As they did, Rainbow Dash spoke seriously to Twilight:

"You know, the elephant who gave me that device said a lot of stuff that didn't make sense at the time."

"What's an 'elephant'?"

"It's, like, a giant grey thing with a big nose. Anyway, he said 'the self is an illusion', and that didn't make any sense at all, but he seemed pretty smart—not as smart as you, of course. Then, later, we went to the land of the zebras…" –She explained how she and the Wonderbolts had discovered and defeated the assassin's guild—"…and they were tied up, and I asked them why they would do something like that, and they said right and wrong were illusions, too, and they're just a bunch of rules that everyone makes up… and I couldn't come up with an argument against that until now."

They stood atop a balcony and looked down on Ponyville, where the townsponies were in the process of tearing down Misty's wall. "In a way," continued rainbow, "the zebras were right—we didn't win against Misty because we were the good guys. We won because Misty turned everypony against her… although, it didn't hurt that _you _were way stronger than her, Twilight."

Twilight shook her head. "If it hadn't been for Princess Luna, I never would have arrived in time, and if it hadn't been for Blizzard, Misty would have killed me, and if it hadn't been for Ditzy Doo, she might have escaped."

"Blizzard!" exclaimed Rainbow. "How's he been taking all this?" Twilight shook her head. "Oh."

"His skull cutie mark reappeared sometime while I was gone, and I think he feels partly responsible for what happened."

"Well, maybe you should give him a new cutie mark," suggested Rainbow Dash.

Everypony present was in favor of this idea, and a few seconds later they were knocking on the door of the Wonderbolt tower. When nopony answered, Rainbow opened the door and led the others inside.

"Blizzard!" called Twilight. "We'd like to speak with you, if that's all right!"

After a moment, he appeared upstairs, looking uncertainly over the banister. As he walked down the stairs, he didn't take his eyes off of Twilight until he stopped and bowed to her. "Yes, Princess?"

"I know you must have been feeling troubled by the events of the past few weeks… and by the return of your cutie mark."

He made as if to cover it, but realized this was pointless. "Princess, there's something I have to confess." He was staring at the floor, not daring to look anypony in the face. "Misty wasn't the one who killed Rose… I was." As everypony's eyes widened, he continued: "My cutie mark wouldn't let me stop killing, and to an extent, it was the same for her. I lost control of myself and went out one night, and"—He paused, his voice shaking. "I knew the right thing to do was to tell you what was happening, Princess, so that you could deal with the situation before it got any worse, but I couldn't stand the thought of everypony knowing I was a murderer…"

He took a deep breath. "When Misty became an alicorn, I was the first to find out, but still I told no one. I knew I was dooming everypony, and I hated myself for it—I still do—but I was just too afraid of the consequences. Princess, I am deeply sorry, but I know that no apology can make up for my crimes… I deserve whatever punishment you see fit to give me."

Twilight was silent for a long time. Then, she said "Blizzard, despite the mistakes you made, I believe that you are basically good at heart, _especially_ in light of the fact that in the end, you showed the courage to save my life, and with it, all of Equestria. I hereby grant you pardon for your crimes and offer you the chance to change your cutie mark to whatever you wish."

He stared at her in disbelief. "You're… pardoning me? After what I've done?"

"That's right."

"But it wasn't just Rose… there were other ponies, Misty would bring them to my room, and"—

She shook her head. "Misty's gone now, and I feel perfectly safe letting you walk free. Now, I'm guessing you'd rather have another mark besides that old skull?"

He looked at his flank, trying to decide on a mark, when something occurred to him. "Wait… I thought there wasn't going to be any more cutie mark magic."

"That's correct, but I thought you might like having something else on your flank to look at. Think of it as a special tattoo."

After a minute or so, he had an answer: "If it's alright, I'd like a symbol that shows my allegiance. I want to know that whatever I end up doing with my life, I'm fighting for the right cause."

Twilight smiled. "Fair enough."

All eyes were on Blizzard's flank as she cast the spell, and then watched the mark appear with anticipation, followed by confusion.

Blizzard looked up at Twilight and stammered "Well, I—I kind of meant my allegiance to Equestria, if that's… okay…"

"That's why I made your cutie mark the Earth," she replied. "Your allegiance to Equestria _is _your allegiance to the world, because under my rule, that's what we're going to stand for from now on. We are all citizens of the world, and we are responsible for making it a better place."

He seemed placated by this, so all wished him good luck with his life before leaving him with his new mark.

Later that day, Twilight found herself in her room, writing in a diary about what had happened:

_Today I learned something about the nature of freedom, and why it's worth fighting for. Though dictators may rise to power, they are doomed to fall in the end—because while right and wrong may not exist on their own, the world does, and so long as its inhabitants are willing to fight for freedom and truth, their sheer numbers and shared love of the world they live in will give them all the strength they need to take power back from the few and the greedy._

_Just as absolute morality is a construct of the mind, so, too, is the notion of an absolute self; we are all products of the world we live in, and we cannot take from it indefinitely without it taking back. Therein lies the power of friendship—to provide us with something of an escape from the prison that is the self, to commune with the other and to reinforce the knowledge that we are all a part of everything._

As she looked over what she'd written, she received a jolt upon seeing the words _Dear Princess Celestia—_she hadn't remembered putting them there.

_I must have done it subconsciously, _she thought, and after some consideration she added _Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle_ to the bottom, carefully removed the page from the diary, and called out "Spike!"

"Yes, Twilight?" he asked as he rushed downstairs to do her bidding.

"I have a letter for you to send." She held it to him.

He looked at her strangely. "Those don't go anywhere, remember?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't have to. It's just… for the sake of old times, you know?"

He seemed to understand, and without another word he took the letter from her, walked over to the window, and breathed it away into the wind.

As time went on, all the ponies of Equestria contributed to the long and difficult task of reconstruction. Twilight had made sure to destroy the sacrificial circle and all the ley lines connected to it so as to ensure that no more alicorns could be made by way of sacrifice, and had then travelled across Equestria training unicorn doctors to treat deadly viruses. Misty's hundreds of victims were mourned by the nation, which was even more devastated than they had been by Celestia's death and the revelations that had come with it.

Presently, however, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were away from the reconstruction—miles away, in fact, flying over the fields of Sustria. Since Fluttershy was by far the slower one, Rainbow Dash flew around almost aimlessly, doing loop-de-loops, spins, and other things to distract herself.

"What kind of animals did you see in the land of the zebras?" asked Fluttershy hopefully.

"I didn't really see any, besides birds and stuff," replied Rainbow Dash, "but the plants were all different, so I'm sure the animals will be, too."

Fluttershy smiled gently. "Thanks again for doing this for me."

"No problem," shrugged Rainbow. "I got something from everypony else, so why not you?"

As they reached the coastline and began crossing the ocean, Rainbow knew in her heart that like the others, Fluttershy would always be her friend—a friend who was never going to give her up, never going to let her down, never going to run around and desert her— a friend who was never going to make her cry, never going to say goodbye, never going to tell a lie and hurt her.

THE END


End file.
